Shadows of Magic
by Strange1331
Summary: [Being Revamped!] Dr. Eggman botched something up again. So not a big deal. He's done it before. Except this time, instead of just blowing up, he ended up bringing a certain purple unicorn against her will to Mobius. Join Sonic, Shadow, and Twilight on their quest to get her back home! But after all the bonding she does with the hedgehogs... will she want to?


**Magic on Mobius: Prologue**

Location: Unknown

A large man was leaning back in a chair, twiddling his great mustache as he looked at a massive array of monitors. The monitors were arranged in a half-circle facing the man, providing the only light in the dark room he sat in. From the light the screens provided, one could see that the man wore a red jacket and black slacks over his egg-shaped body. His eyes flickered from screen to screen behind his darkened glasses as he muttered to himself. Every screen displayed a different image of a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog, one showing it in battle with an egg-shaped robot, another showing an x-ray of it, all of them providing valuable scientific information regarding the hedgehog. And every bit of it was practically useless to the man viewing it. "Curses!" he shouted as he slammed his fist down on the arm of his chair. The sound reverberated around the dark room. "Even with all of this carefully collected data, I am unable to defeat that blasted hedgehog. I, the great Dr. Ivo Robotnik, was able to conquer the world, yet I can't even get rid of that annoying blue pest! There has to be something in this world that can stop him. There has to!"

He paused for a moment from his angry tirade, thinking about what he had just said. "Maybe not. Not in **this** world, at least," he speculated aloud, beginning to grin as he snapped his fingers. A control panel sprung out of the floor in front of him. His hands flew across it, punching buttons and flipping switches. The screens all darkened, then combined to display a blueprint that Robotnik had never used before. He had glimpsed at it once, long ago, as he was going through some of his grandfather's work. "This is perfect! The hedgehog will never see this coming! With this, I can bring forth a creature the likes of which he's never seen to do my bidding! Mark my words, Sonic the Hedgehog, this is the beginning of your end!" Robotnik guffawed somewhat insanely, his voice greatly amplified as it reverberated around the room. Then, he set off to complete his treacherous task.

Location: Ponyville Library, Equestria

"Spike! Can you get me that one book I told you about earlier?" A small purple dragon nodded as he ran up a flight of stairs to retrieve the book. Waiting for his return, a lavender unicorn with navy blue hair that had pink and purple streaks running through it trotted up to another book shelf to remove another book for the research project she had planned. As she removed the book from the bookshelf, a sudden chill in the air made her pause. She felt as if she were being watched. Levitating it off the shelf, she looked around, seeing nopony, yet remaining with the impression that somepony- or something- was looking at her. She gave herself a slight shake and trotted over to her desk, setting the book face up on it. The book she had grabbed looked like new, but she knew it only looking so preserved because nopony had deigned to touch it before now. Sighing at the absence of scientific curiosity in Ponyville, she flipped open the cover of the book. To her great surprise, inside the pages was not a list of magical ailments and their cures. The middle section of the pages had been carved out, and a book had been placed in their hollow.

This book, unlike the one it was in, looked incredibly ancient. It was a small, browned, leather bound volume, its pages tied surprisingly strongly together with a cord made of… something thin and midnight blue. Her original task all but forgotten, the unicorn pulled the book from its resting place, surprised to find that the book on magical maladies returned to normal upon doing so. Curiouser and curiouser. The unicorn gently opened the cover of the volume and gasped at what she saw. Inside, in a seldom used language, there was an inscription reading, "This journal contains the most important, and final, works of Starswirl the Bearded,"

"But, those were supposed to have been found centuries ago," she mumbled to herself, disbelieving her luck. More text appeared below the inscription as she processed this, so she quickly read on.

"To whomsoever may have found this journal,  
>Congratulations! Only a magic user whose raw magic potential is at least my level or higher could be able to find and read this journal. In it, I have written down some of my most important spells I have created and perfected. Should you so choose, I give you who found my book permission to read and use whatever you find in this journal to your heart's desire. Be warned, though. Should any of these magic spells be used to commit deeds of ill-intent, the book shall close itself up again, sealing it, and its spells, for another century. And don't try to copy down the spells or memorize them by heart. Once the book is sealed, its current owner will forget about the existence of the book, along with all of its spells. For you who is pure of heart, you need not concern yourself over these matters. Simply enjoy the magic!<br>Yours truly,  
>Starswirl the Bearded".<p>

For several moments, the unicorn could do nothing more than stare at this inscription with open-mouthed shock. She shook her head back and forth slightly to bring her back to her senses. Determinedly, she began to flip through the book, gazing in awe at the immense variety of complex spells she saw. After flipping through the whole book, pausing at each spell only long enough to see what it did, she returned to the first page, feeling giddy at what she had discovered.

The first spell was the simplest in the book, as to be expected from the sorting of Starswirl the Bearded. However, it was still a fairly tricky spell to cast. She read and reread the passage on the spell several times before feeling she had understood it enough to attempt it. This spell, to her pleasure, would help unlock her latent magic for a minute, granting easy access to it for some of the more difficult spells later on in the book. Unlocking her hidden potential also meant that she would recover faster short term. After an hour or so, though, she would begin to feel the drawbacks of it, or so the passage said, so she should use the spell sparingly. The unicorn closed her eyes, concentrating the power flowing into her horn. She willed it to disperse across her body, flow into her, and become her. As she did so, her magic instantly became much, much more powerful. The unicorn felt like she could move a mountain! And, best of all, she was in complete control of her power. She opened her mouth to call out to her assistant, but suddenly, she lost her footing and fell to her knees. She looked down to see a small vortex was opening beneath her. Panicking, she attempted to get out of its way, but it was too late. She fell into the vortex, screaming, her voice unheard as the vortex consumed her, the sound, and her book. After swallowing the unicorn, the vortex folded in on itself, diminishing itself to nothingness. Silence spread across the library.

"I got the book, Twilight! Sorry it took so long, it was really high up…" Spike began as he trotted downstairs, slowing to a halt as he realized the lavender unicorn was missing. _That's odd_, Spike thought worriedly._ Twilight never leaves in the middle of a research project. Where could she have gone…_

**Magic on Mobius: Chapter 1**

Location: G.U.N Headquarters

A black anthropomorphic hedgehog with red highlights running through his fur walked purposefully through the corridors of G.U.N. headquarters. "Hey, Shadow, wait up!" a female voice called from behind him. Shadow, however, continued onwards at the same pace, pretending he hadn't heard her. The origin of the voice caught up to him quickly, however. A white bat now walked beside him, attempting, with some difficulty, to keep up with the quick pace he had set. "I see that you're feeling the same as ever: grumpy, stoic, and ready to kill somebody," she commented, hoping to draw a reaction from him. As usual, however, she received none as Shadow continued down the corridor, not even acknowledging her presence. Unlike most people, this girl didn't get the hint that she shouldn't be talking to him, for she continued going on and on about one thing or another. It wasn't till they had nearly reached their destination that Shadow actually acknowledged the lady.

"You remember the mission today, Rouge?" Shadow inquired, cutting off Rouge midsentence.

"Of course. Why do you think I'm walking with you? It's certainly not because you're the best company. It's been awhile since Robotnik's gotten his grubby fingers on a Chaos Emerald. What kind of machine do you think he's using it for this time?"

"Maybe one to locate jewels," Shadow replied sarcastically.

"Heh. If only. If he did that, I'd steal that baby in a second. Seriously, though, what do you think we'll encounter?"

"We'll find out when we breach his base," he replied as he and Rouge reached their destination, stepping into the helicarrier that would take them, along with a dozen G.U.N. troops, to Robotnik's base. As they flew, the commander in charge of the operation briefed the passengers one last time.

"Our main objective for this mission is to recover the Chaos Emerald. When the helicarrier drops us off, we're going to hit the ground running. Shadow and Rouge, you two go in first and start busting up some 'bots. The rest of us will follow them in to perform clean-up. After trashing the robots, you two will seek out the Chaos Emerald, then, take it, and Robotnik, if you can, into custody. You two are the focal point of this mission, so don't get distracted. This is a quick strike, people, so let's move, move, MOVE!" he ended with a shout as the bottom of the helicarrier opened and dropped its passengers over Robotnik's metal base. They plummeted down, each using his/her own way to deal with recovering from the fall. Rouge spread out her wings to turn her fall into a glide. The G.U.N agents pulled parachutes to slow their descent, landing next to the base as the wind blew them aside. Shadow used his rocket skates to begin to hover about a foot off the ground. Not waiting for the others, he zoomed towards the base, punching a whole through the metal exterior.

"Knock knock," he said, grinning as he looked at the robots inside. "We're coming in."

Shadow began demolishing robots left and right. Rouge quickly joined him. "Any ideas on where the Chaos Emerald is?" she asked as her fist drove through a robot's head.

"Robotnik being Robotnik, he's probably got it as close to the center of the base as possible. Let's head that way. We'll leave the rest of these robots for the others," Shadow responded, driving his foot through a robot before gesturing towards a corridor that seemed to lead to the center of the base. Rouge nodded, and they sped off to try and find the Chaos Emerald.

Several minutes of mazelike corridors and wrong turns later, they reached the approximate center of the base. A mad cackling could be heard from an open door on their left, followed by some softer mumbling. Seeing this as an opportunity to put her spying tactics to use, Rouge gestured for Shadow to halt. She slid along the wall, creeping up to the open door. Reaching into her right boot, she pulled out a mirror she always kept, in case of emergencies. Shadow glared at her. "Rouge, this is **not** the time to be checking your makeup!" Shadow hissed furiously, the sound covered up by the peculiar noise that had begun coming from the room. Rouge held up a finger and waggled it from side to side, the way she would when she was tut-tutting him. She held the mirror out in front of her and angled it so that she could see inside the room without exposing herself. Shadow sidled up next to her to look through the mirror too. After a bit of maneuvering, they saw a reflected Robotnik standing in front of a large, ring-shaped device. In the center of the ring, a blue-green vortex swirled, making that strange noise they had been hearing for some time now. The Chaos Emerald was nowhere in sight. Robotnik had his back turned to the door and was mumbling something, but he quickly leapt into a loud monologue as the ring began to glow.

"At last! The inter-dimensional portal has located a strong adversary for that dratted hedgehog! Let's just check its power readings before it gets here…" He pulled a small device out of his back pocket and began fiddling with it. His back was to the door, so Rouge and Shadow could not see what the device was reading, but whatever it was, it made Robotnik gasp. "Its-its power level, it's over 9000!" he shouted, crushing the device in his hands, sending its parts clanking onto the floor. "Oh, what a lucky day this is for me! With this power, I could not only blast that hedgehog into smithereens, I could take over the world! I just need to prepare the neural transmitter, just in case whatever comes out of there is a goody two-shoes. Can't have another hero coming to Mobius." Shadow, for one, had heard enough. He leapt into the room, busting down the partially opened door.

"Hold it right there, Robotnik! You're under arrest!" he shouted. Rouge ran in behind him, holding handcuffs. Robotnik cursed, but then brightened as the portal grew more luminescent.

"Not today, hedgehog! In a few seconds, a life form even more powerful then you will be coming out of that portal. It shall destroy you!" He cackled madly as the portal glowed to make a blinding light. They shielded their eyes. Then, with a small _pop_, the portal shut off, and the light in the room returned to normal. The portal had spit out something. There, standing before them… was a great… all-powerful… teenage girl?

**Magic on Mobius: Chapter 2**

Location: Robotnik's base

The girl stood there in a dress that was the swirling blue-green of the portal. Robotnik stared at her, jaw dropped in shock. Shadow raised an eyebrow at the doctor. "**This** is your all-powerful life form?" he asked, smirking. "A teenage girl?"

Robotnik yanked at his mustache in frustration. "How can this be?! I built the device to drag her here exactly according to the blueprints! It should have brought a powerful life form with unlimited potential, not a stupid little teenager! What could have gone wrong?!"

The girl chose then to interrupt. "You were the one who brought me here?" she asked Robotnik, her voice surprisingly sweet and melodious. Robotnik nodded, grumbling.

"I see," she said quietly. Quicker than Shadow, Robotnik, or Rouge could see, she ended up in Robotnik's face, as if she had teleported, a finger pointing threateningly at him. "Then you can put me back where I came from," she menaced. With each word, she took a step towards him, a purple aura growing around her. Robotnik shrank backwards, a look of fear on his face, backing into the control panel he had left up earlier. He wheeled around and slammed down on a large red button. The base began to shake violently.

"Self-destruct sequence: initiated. Three minutes until self-destruction. Have a nice day," a monotone, robotic voice said, resonating throughout the base. In the moment of distraction he had caused, the doctor pressed another button, a bright blue one this time. A large metal capsule formed around him. He waved pleasantly at the small group before him before a hole opened beneath him, sending the capsule holding him plummeting. It quickly closed up behind him.

"We have to get out of here!" Rouge yelled. The base began shaking violently.

"We need the Chaos Emerald!" Shadow shouted in response.

"You're looking for a gem?" the girl asked, her voice calm again.

"Yeah. It's big, green, and powerful," Rouge responded. The girl closed her eyes, frowning in concentration. When she opened her eyes moments later, they glowed a brilliant purple. She glanced around the room. Rouge looked at Shadow questioningly, but he shook his head, indicating that she shouldn't ask questions. After several moments of looking around, the girl pointed at the inter-dimensional portal.

"It's in that metal hoop," she stated, "on the left side, just above the middle." _How does she know that?_ Shadow wondered. He shook his head, deciding now was not the best time to have a Q and A session with this mystery girl. Shadow ran over to the metal ring and ripped open a hole in the plating where the girl indicated the Chaos Emerald was. To his surprise, though it didn't show on his face, there it was, glowing a brilliant green.

"How-" he began, but was interrupted as the base began to creak.

"One minute until detonation," the voice said.

"Ask questions later, get us out of here now!" Rouge yelled.

Shadow ran over to the girl, Rouge following him, as she stood there, perfectly calm. He gripped the girl's left forearm tightly, but not painfully so. Rouge mimicked him, grabbing the girl's right forearm. Holding out the Chaos Emerald in his left hand, he closed his eyes and concentrated for a second.

"Chaos Control!" he shouted, teleporting the three in a flash of green light. They ended up near where the helicarrier had landed. The other G.U.N. agents were there, too, having heard the detonation call on the base and run far enough away to be clear of the explosion. The commander marched up to Shadow.

"Did you get the Chaos Emerald?" he asked. To answer, Shadow held up the glowing green gem. "Good. I take it Robotnik got away again?" Shadow looked at the ground, closing his eyes and nodding slightly. The commander sighed. "Very well. We'll simply have to apprehend him some other time." He suddenly realized that Shadow had brought something more with him than just the Chaos Emerald. "Shadow, who is this?" he asked, anger edging into his voice at the fact that Shadow had brought an unauthorized person to the helicarrier, a girl nonetheless.

Shadow opened his mouth to respond, when the base suddenly exploded. Red and orange flames swooped upward, a giant cloud of dark grey smoke following them. Pieces of the base scattered everywhere, smashing into the ground and creating small craters. A particularly large scrap of metal, big enough to crush the helicarrier and the people around it, went flying towards them, as if aimed at the helicarrier. Shadow attempted to use the power from the Chaos Emerald to control the flight path of the shrapnel and direct it away from the helicarrier, like he had seen Silver do on multiple occasions, but there wasn't enough time to change the path enough to stop it from smashing the helicarrier and those around it. Everyone around the helicarrier began to scatter, not nearly fast enough to evade the shrapnel, Shadow and Rouge included.

The girl, however, stayed where she was, just looking at the shrapnel hurdling towards her. Shadow turned, realizing she wasn't running away, and rocketed towards her to protect her from the impact, but before he could reach her, the giant hunk of metal suddenly stopped flying towards them, pausing several feet above the helicarrier, surrounded in a purple aura. Then, it lowered itself slowly to the ground, moving several yards to the right of the helicarrier, where nobody was. Shadow looked at the girl in shock. Her eyes were slits and she was sweating, the violet aura emanating from her incredibly strong. As the violet aura dissipated around the piece of the base, it dissipated around the girl as well. She collapsed, on the spot, as soon as it had disappeared completely. Shadow caught her before she hit the ground, scooping her up in his arms. The commander, his men, and Rouge began to approach the helicarrier cautiously, flicking their eyes between the unconscious girl and the shrapnel.

"Sir," Shadow said, drawing the commander's attention. "Rouge and I found this girl in Robotnik's headquarters. She had been pulled through an inter-dimensional portal by Robotnik to help him take over the world, but she drove Robotnik off before he could use his mind-controlling device on her. She also was the one who located the Chaos Emerald. Without her, we would have had to dig through several tons of rubble to recover the Chaos Emerald. Permission to take this girl back to headquarters to recover?"

"Permission granted. This girl saved all of our lives just now, on top of retrieving the Chaos Emerald. We cannot let this debt go unpaid." With that, the group stepped onto the helicarrier, some of them more shaken than others, but all of them feeling grateful towards the mystery girl. Shadow set her down on one of the cots that were on the helicarrier for injured soldiers.

Now that he wasn't in a life-threatening situation, Shadow looked at the girl more closely. The dress she wore appeared to be made out of the portal substance, for it swirled in the portal's blue green pattern, starting around her stomach and spiraling out from there. As he looked at it, Shadow noted that the pattern was slowly moving, rotating clockwise around the center. The dress was strapless and hugged the girl's chest, which was approximately the size of Rouge's, if not a bit bigger, tightly. It cut off a just below her knees, and Shadow shifted his attention to the girl herself. The girl's fur was a light lavender color. Her body had the basic shape any Mobian would have, with skinny arms and long legs, except that Shadow had never seen a pony-like Mobian. In place of feet, she had hooves. She had hands, though. A strange tattoo was on the back of her right hand. It was a pink, six-pointed star overlaying a white one, surrounded by five smaller five-pointed stars. Her hair-or, more accurately, mane- and tail were both fairly long, her hair going down to her waist, her tail going a bit below her knees. They were a navy blue, with pink and purple streaks woven into them. Her eyes were closed at the moment, but he vaguely remembered them being a violet color when they weren't glowing. A small, horn-like object protruded from her forehead. By this time, everybody else had gathered around the girl and looked at her curiously.

Just then, the helicarrier hit some turbulence, and one of the soldiers, off balance, ended up jostling her horn with a bit of force behind him. The girl's body tightened and she arched her back, reacting as if she had been electrocuted. The others tensed too, not sure how to handle situation. She moaned softly in pain before slowly relaxing, everybody else relaxing with her. Rouge glared at the agent that had hit the girl's horn accusingly.

"That's a fine way to treat a lady," she said, hostile.

"How was I supposed to know not to touch her horn?" he responded defensively, though he looked ashamed.

There was an awkward silence in the helicarrer for several seconds, interrupted when the helicarrier door opened onto G.U.N. headquarters. Shadow scooped the girl up into his arms.

"I'll take her to the infirmary," he stated, starting off. After shedding all of their equipment and donning fairly civilian clothes, the eleven agents that had accompanied Shadow and Rouge hurried to follow them, maintaining their distance. The commander had gone off to report the status of the mission to his superiors, taking the Chaos Emerald with him. When Shadow and his entourage arrived at the infirmary, he handed the girl off to the doctors that worked there.

"Well well well, what have we here?" inquired a doctor as he looked at the unfamiliar patient.

"I'm not entirely sure," Shadow responded. "All we know about her is that she came from another dimension and has some form of energy manipulation. From what I witnessed, she used her manipulation abilities too much and passed out. Then, she got hit on her forehead in the horn and responded as if she were electrocuted. Sorry Doctor, I can't tell you much more about her than that."

The doctor nodded his head. "That should be enough information to go off of. We'll do some quick scans on her first. We'll know where to go from there." He turned his gaze up to look at the group. "If you all are going to wait for the results, head over to the waiting room." As the troops and Rouge went away, the doctor turned to Shadow, saying, "That's quite an entourage she has. Is there a reason for them being here?"

Shadow shrugged. "They're probably worried about her. After all, she found the Chaos Emerald before Robotnik's base self-destructed and saved them from being squished by a giant hunk of his base." He turned and walked away, leaving the doctor looking mildly surprised. He arrived in the waiting room to find that the other agents were already relaxed on couches, chatting absentmindedly. Shadow took a seat on an unoccupied couch, slouching back and closing his eyes, indicating that he did not wish to be disturbed. Then, the waiting game began.

**Magic on Mobius: Chapter 3**

Location: Infirmary Waiting Room, G.U.N. Headquarters

Several minutes later, Shadow's ear twitched as he heard someone approaching the couch he was resting on. He kept his eyes closed, waiting for the one who had approached him to make the first move.

"Shadow, I'd like to have a word with you," a deep voice requested.

Recognizing the voice, Shadow's eyes shot open and he stood up, showing the proper respect for the head of G.U.N. "Yes, sir," he responded, following The Commander out of the room. They walked through several corridors in silence, passing by several agents who each saluted when The Commander walked by. Finally, as they turned down the fifth corridor, The Commander spoke.

"Would you like to know what the leader of your mission reported to me earlier?" he inquired. Shadow said nothing. Taking this as a yes, he continued. "He reported to me that you brought an unknown girl, completely unauthorized to be here, back to headquarters." Shadow continued to say nothing, waiting to be scolded. "And I thank you for that."

Shadow blinked. "Excuse me?"

The Commander chuckled at the disbelief in Shadow's voice. "Made you think I was going to scold you, didn't I? When the mission leader first told me about the girl, I was all ready to go and do just that. But then he elaborated on her contribution to the mission a bit more, saying that she was a majority of the reason the mission was a success. I came to you, Shadow, hoping you could elaborate on this a bit. Tell me everything you know, from beginning to end."

Shadow nodded and related his entire experience with the girl, from him and Rouge spying on Robotnik up until he had gone to the waiting room, though he kept his speculations about the girl to himself. By the time he finished recounting his experience, he and The Commander had snaked around headquarters and were now approaching the waiting room.

The Commander had listened to Shadow's entire recount of the situation without interrupting him, but he had shown great interest upon finding out that the girl had seemed to see through metal to find the Chaos Emerald. "Well, from what you have told me, it seems this girl can track down Chaos Emeralds with great accuracy. That ability could be handy in the future. I must speak with her when she regains consciousness. Mind if I join you in the waiting room?" Shadow shook his head in response, gesturing for The Commander to go in first. Upon entering the room, they were surprised to find Rouge drilling the other agents in there, who were all standing at attention.

"Remember: this girl's new here, so she's bound to be nervous when she meets you all. Be nice to her, and **no** funny business. Do I make myself clear?" she asked.

"Sir, yes sir!" they responded in unison.

"Very good," she finished before noticing the entrance of Shadow and The Commander.

"Rouge, may I ask what you are doing with my men?" The Commander inquired curiously.

"I was just drilling them on how to behave in front of the new girl when she wakes up," she responded, offhandedly.

"That's uncharacteristically caring of you, Rouge," Shadow noted. "What's in it for you?"

Rouge mocked being taken aback. "You believe I have hidden intentions? For shame, Shadow. I'm merely helping a sister out. I owe her one for saving me back there." She grinned. "Besides, if she can see jewels other than Chaos Emeralds, it would be **very** beneficial for me to befriend her." Shadow rolled his eyes, knowing Rouge all too well.

The doctor Shadow had been talking to earlier walked in at that moment. "I am happy to report that the patient is fine and should be waking up any minute now." A cheer went up among the men. "She simply passed out from exhaustion. However," he began, looking pointedly at the men in the room, "I cannot permit more than three people, not including me, to see her at a time. Too much excitement would be bad for her in her present state. So, which three shall be going first?" Shadow stepped forward, Rouge following his lead. To finish the trio off, The Commander stepped forward. His presence in the group intimidated the others to the point that no one dare challenge Shadow or Rouge on their right to go first.

"Very good," the doctor said, pleased that the trio had been assembled without any hassle. "Follow me then." He stepped out of the waiting room and turned right, walking down the corridor. The trio followed. Following several twists and turns, they reached the area of headquarters reserved for those in recovery. Passing by several doors that all had the names of their occupants on them with a clipboard for the doctors lying just beneath, they ended up in front of a room with a clipboard, but no name plate. _Why doesn't this door have a name plate?_ Shadow wondered before performing a mental facepalm. _Duh. We don't know her name yet. _The doctor opened the door, allowing Shadow, Rouge, and the Commander to each enter before entering himself, closing the door behind him. The room was on the small side, just big enough for the four to fit in there comfortably, but one or two more people would've caused discomfort. The walls were metallic and bare with no windows, for the room lie near the center of the base.

A curtain was drawn across a part of the room, hiding something behind it. The doctor indicated that to the trio to wait for his signal to reveal themselves. The doctor drew the curtain away to find the girl awake, sitting up in the hospital bed, staring at her arms with her violet eyes. They flashed up from their perplexed position and focused on the doctor as he was made visible to her.

"Ah, I see you're awake. That's good," the doctor began, looking down at the clipboard he had grabbed from its position on the door. "You passed out earlier from exhaustion. You also got a small hit to your horn, but I'm not entirely sure how that affected you. So, I'm going to need you to stay calm and not get excited. Can you do that?" The girl looked at him blankly. "Oh, I'm sorry, can you not understand me?" he said hurriedly, looking abashed.

The girl shook her head. "No, I understand you just fine. It's just, I have never seen a creature such as yourself. May I ask what, and who, you are?"

"Ah, yes, please forgive me. I am called Dr. John Smith. I'm a human, along with the doctor who received you here. May I ask what kind of creature you are?"

"I'm a unicorn, of course." The doctor's jaw dropped. "Or at least I was... I remember getting sucked into some kind of vortex. When I came out the other side, I ended up looking like, well, like this," she finished, gesturing at herself.

"I see," the doctor responded, his medical training taking over from his shock. "Do you remember anything else? Is there anything you feel like you should remember that you can't? Do you remember what happened just before you blacked out?"

"Well, I remember a giant chunk of metal hurdling towards me and some other creatures. I stopped it from smashing us before I passed out. It was really heavy, but nobody got hurt, thankfully." She looked up, alarmed, panic seeping into her voice. "Nobody got hurt, did they? I tried to set the metal down where nobody was, but-"

"Easy, easy. You were the most injured one there. Nobody else got hurt, thanks to you. Now, from my medical standpoint, you are fit as a fiddle. However, don't overexert yourself. If you have any more questions, just call for me with that button over there." He gestured to a blue button on the wall behind her. "Would you be willing to see visitors?" She nodded her assent. Dr. Smith drew back the curtain even further, revealing Shadow, Rouge, and The Commander standing there. Her eyes widened in recognition at the hedgehog and bat.

"You are the two from that fat human's building!" she exclaimed.

Shadow nodded. "Right. Care to answer a few questions for us?"

"If you're willing to answer some of mine," she bargained.

"Deal. First question: where are you from?"

"I'm from the kingdom of Equestria, or more specifically, Ponyville. Equestria is a land ruled by Earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns. I'm assuming where I'm from is a world different from yours?"

Shadow nodded. "Okay, next question."

"Hang on, that isn't my question! My question is where am I now?"

"Generally speaking, you're on the planet Mobius, ruled by humans and Mobians. Mobians are highly evolved forms of regular creatures. For example, I am a hedgehog, while Rouge here is a bat. The "fat human" you met earlier is Dr. Ivo Robotnik, the main wrongdoer of this world, whose goal is to take over the planet and robotocize every living creature on it."

"Row-bought-oh-what?" Twilight interrupted.

"Robotocize. It means to turn a creature into a robot."

"What's a row-bought?"

Shadow shook his head slightly, disbelieving. _Well, the fact that she doesn't know what a robot is indicates the primitive level of technology on her planet._ "A robot is a soulless machine of sorts made entirely out of metal. They can be programmed with intelligence though, making it so they can imitate the living, but instead of flesh and blood, they are made of metal and oil."

"Some, though, manage to develop souls and override their programming," Rouge added. "Stick around long enough and I'll introduce you to a metal friend of ours."

"That would be wonderful," Twilight responded, smiling at Rouge.

"Now, seeing as you just asked two extra questions, I think it fair that I ask two. How did you find the Chaos Emerald, and how did you stop that giant hunk of metal from turning us into pancakes?" Shadow inquired.

"You mean that gem in the metal hoop? I simply used a gem-finding spell. That was the only gem in the area that resembled Rouge's description, so I assumed it was the Chaos Emerald. As for the metal, I used a levitation spell for that, though that was a bit more tricky, seeing that it was so massive. The exertion from that, combined with the side effects of a spell I had cast earlier, caused me to faint."

"Back up a sec. You mentioned the word 'spell'. Is the form of energy manipulation you were using magic?"

"Yes. Why, is there a different name for the energy manipulation you perform? I assumed it was the same thing, since you teleported us out of that base before it exploded."

"I don't think it is. What I used was a form of Chaos energy manipulation, most commonly called Chaos Control." To his surprise, at the mention of the word Chaos, her ears flattened and she tensed.

"You mean to say you use disharmony to power yourself?" she accused bitterly.

_What's up with the anti-Chaos thing?_ "No. True, some of it does come from negative Chaos energy, but a majority of the time, it's positive Chaos energy that I'm using." She relaxed visibly at his explanation, looking slightly sheepish.

"Sorry, I've had some bad run-ins with creatures of chaos," she explained.

The Commander, who had chosen until now to stay out of the conversation, brought himself into it. "So, you would be unable to teach somebody how to use that gem-finding spell you know?" he inquired.

The girl paused for a moment as she considered this. "Yes," she replied slowly, "I don't think I would. My magic is centered around my horn, so unless there are other unicorns here, I don't think I could teach somepo-somebody else how to use the spell."

"I see," he responded gravely. "Well then, Ms… I'm sorry, what's your name?"

"Oh my gosh! Where are my manners? My name is Twilight Sparkle, but please, call me Twilight."

"Well then, Twilight, how would you like to be an agent of G.U.N?"

**Magic on Mobius: Chapter 4**

Location: Twilight Sparkle's Recovery Room, G.U.N. Headquarters

Shadow and Rouge stood there, their mouths dropped in shock. Twilight merely looked at The Commander curiously.

"Ah, forgive me, you must have no idea what I'm talking about," The Commander said apologetically. "You see, on Mobius, the Guardian Units of Nations, called G.U.N, for short, does its best to protect planet from any threats, both from aliens and from within. Aside from Dr. Robotnik, and possibly several heroes, G.U.N. has some of the most advanced technology, intelligence, and firepower among those here on Mobius. I am the head of G.U.N. Most people call me The Commander. I wish to offer you a job here because, from what I have heard so far, you appear to have some abilities that would be very beneficial to G.U.N. in the future, and very detrimental if in the wrong hands. As an agent of G.U.N, like Shadow and Rouge, here, you shall have our training, protection, and access to most available knowledge on Mobius. All we ask in return is that you provide us with aid using your magic when we need it. Would you be willing to join us?" Twilight paused for a long time after hearing this, her brow furrowed in concentration as her mind raced towards a million places at once.

"May I have some time to consider?" she inquired. "I still know hardly a thing about this place, and I believe I would like become well informed before answering your proposal."

The Commander nodded his approval. "That is very sensible of you, to request such a thing. Very well. I would like your response within the month. In the mean time, Shadow, Rouge." The two stood at attention. "Until further notice, your mission is to stay with Twilight. You will still be called away on normal missions at times, but unless both of you are needed, one of you will stay with her at all times."

Twilight blushed, shaking her head. "The sentiment is appreciated, Commander, but I don't think-"

"that it is necessary?" The Commander finished. "Oh, but it is. Shadow and Rouge, both excellent agents of G.U.N, have the capability of protecting you and showing you around Mobius. You are likely to get lost or captured by Robotnik without them, and that is a risk G.U.N. simply cannot take. So, you shall be accompanied by Shadow, Rouge, or both at all times." He turned to Shadow and Rouge now. "Any objections from the two of you?" Rouge shook her head and latched onto Twilight's right arm.

"I don't have any objections!" she said happily before turning to Twilight. "You and I are going to be the best of friends, I just know it. Hey, maybe you could show me that gem-finding spell again sometime."

Shadow, never one to back down from a challenge, said, "No objections here."

"Very good," The Commander responded. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some business to attend to." The Commander turned and walked the short distance to the door. Upon opening the door, he found the clipboard Dr. Smith had been holding on a peg just below the empty name plate. Dr. Smith, apparently, had managed to slip out with any of them noticing. _Must have had other patients to tend to_, The Commander thought as he slipped out of the room, closing the door gently behind him.

Silence welcomed itself in and filled the room in his absence, only to be broken when Twilight sighed and looked back down at her hands, curling and uncurling her fingers into fists. She had been doing so since they had entered the room, Shadow noted.

"What's with the fist clenching?" he inquired.

She raised both hands in front of her, waving her fingers up and down as she replied, "I'm not entirely used to having fingers yet, so I'm practicing using them to get myself used to the motion. I'm pretty sure I've got the hang of it now, though." She brought her eyes up to meet Shadow's gaze, and her ears flattened slightly while her cheeks became tinged in pink.

"Sorry The Commander made you two act as tour guides for me," she said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it too much, hon. I'll be happy if you could show me that gem-seeking spell you used," Rouge replied.

Shadow said nothing. He did not enjoy the company of people as a general thing, and people didn't like to be around him. Which was fine by him, except now he had been given the roll of babysitter and tour guide to this teenager. He paused for a second at this thought. He had read somewhere that unicorns were immortal creatures, so while Twilight may appear to be 17 or 18, she could actually be 170 or 180 without them knowing.

"I read somewhere that unicorns are immortal," he said, which seemed very random to both Rouge and Twilight. "Is this true? Because you look like your 17."

Twilight shook her head, chuckling slightly. "No, unicorns don't live forever. At least, they don't on Equestria. Alicorns do, though." Seeing the questioning look on Shadow's face, she elaborated. "Alicorns are a balance between the three main species, having the strength of Earth ponies, the wings of a Pegasus, and the magic of a unicorn. There are only three alicorns in existence in all of Equestria, though, and they are all royalty. They weren't born alicorns, though. They became alicorns later in life. I'm not entirely sure how one becomes an alicorn, but I have my speculations. And I'm not seventeen!" she finished in a huff.

"Then how old are-" he began before Rouge cut in.

"Now now, Shadow, it's rude to ask a lady her age. You feeling good enough to walk around yet?" she inquired of Twilight. Upon Twilight's nod in assent, Rouge headed towards the door. "Come on then. Let's give you a tour of headquarters. You're going to need to know your way around if you end up joining."

Twilight pulled the covers off her and set her hooves on the ground. She stood up, taking a few steps before losing her balance and falling forward. Shadow, who had been leaned against the wall to her right, jerked forward and caught her easily before she hit the ground. An awkward moment passed between the two as Twilight had rotated slightly during her fall and her face was now only a few inches from Shadow's. They gazed into each other's eyes for several moments, Twilight's cheeks becoming tinged in pink and Shadow's face maintaining its neutral expression. Their gaze broke from each other when Rouge gave a slight cheer from near the door.

"Oooh, Shadow, you bad boy, making a move on the girl when you barely even know her!" she teased. Twilight blushed profusely at this, her face going from slightly pink to full-on red as Shadow helped her get vertical again.

"I merely prevented her from falling," Shadow responded, not looking the slightest bit abashed.

"Sorry about that," she said, holding up one hand and bowing her head slightly. "It looks like I'll need to learn how to walk on two hooves as well." She took another few steps before losing her balance again. Shadow grabbed both her shoulders from behind to steady her.

"This is getting nowhere fast," Shadow sighed as he released her once she was steady. He stepped forward and offered his left arm to her.

"You can lean on me for balance, if you'd like," he offered, trying to get them moving as quickly as possible. She accepted his arm gratefully, gripping it tightly as they made their way across the room without any more mishaps. Rouge giggled slightly when they reached the door, but kept her thoughts to herself as the three went into the hallway.

"First stop on our tour: the waiting room!" Rouge said happily as she walked forward at a slow pace, slightly in front of Shadow and Twilight. As they walked towards the waiting room, Rouge pointed down corridors and explained where they led, what their purpose was, and a bit about G.U.N. as a general thing. As Rouge explained, Twilight nodded, absorbing the information and filing it away for future reference. After several corridors, Twilight began to get the hang of walking on two hooves instead of four, and her grip on Shadow's arm became a bit less forceful, not as tight. She still held on, however, feeling strange comfort in the soft fur of his arm and the slight pulse he had in his wrist. Her eyes flickered towards his face and she saw that he was staring at her right hand, not paying attention to what Rouge said.

"Is there something wrong with my hand?" she inquired, snapping his attention away from it.

"No," he responded, turning his gaze away from her hand and looking forward. "I was just curious about the tattoo on the back of your hand."

"Tattoo? Oh, you must mean my cutie mark!" she exclaimed, drawing a raised eyebrow from Shadow.

"Your what mark?" he asked incredulously.

"My cutie mark," she repeated, finding the look of horror that had begun to edge into his eyes incredibly amusing.

"A cutie mark is a visual manifestation of one's special talent," she explained in a teacherly manner, as if reading from a textbook. "In Equestria, everypony is born without their cutie mark. A pony's cutie mark appears in a moment of true inspiration, where their true talent if fully revealed. No two are exactly alike, although talents sometimes run in families. For example, my friend Applejack and her family have been running orchards across Equestria for generations. Her special talent is running the orchard and bucking apples, so her cutie mark is three red apples on her flank." Twilight paused, pondering something. "Come to think of it, I wonder why my cutie mark isn't on my flank right now. And why am I wearing a dress?"

Rouge heard this last comment and stopped, Twilight and Shadow nearly running into her. She turned slowly, her eyes wide. "You mean to say you don't wear clothes in Equestria?" she asked, incredulous.

"Clothes are optional for us, though they are typically worn on formal occasions. Why? Is there something wrong with no clothes here?" Shadow looked away, a slight tinge of pink on the edge of his cheeks.

"I'm going on ahead," he said, pulling his arm from Twilight's grasp and walking away quickly, turning down the first corridor he could. Twilight looked after him curiously.

"What's up with him?" she wondered aloud. Rouge shook her head, as if to clear it, and put a hand on Twilight's shoulder.

"Twilight, I think you and I need to have a little talk."

-One little talk later-

Twilight's face was a brilliant red as Rouge finished explaining why she needed to wear clothes, which also included explaining parts of the female anatomy and male's attraction to certain parts of it. She now understood why Shadow had walked away when the topic had come up. She looked down at the two lumps on her chest, feeling embarrassed that they were so big and now wishing she was wearing something a bit less… revealing. She closed her eyes and sighed. Rouge gasped in front of her.

"What?" Twilight inquired, feeling a bit like a broken record.

Rouge just pointed at her. She looked down and saw why Rouge had gasped. The skimpy blue-green dress with the intriguing pattern she was wearing had transformed itself, elongating so that it stretched down to her ankles and gaining long sleeves. Instead of feeling constricting, it now felt comfortable, granting her a greater range of motion and making breathing a bit easier. Fortunately, it had a small hole in the back that her tail hung out of comfortably, revealing nothing. She turned slightly, and the dress followed her motion, providing a slight _swish_ing sound as it followed her movements.

Shadow chose then to turn down the corridor he had left Twilight and Rouge standing in, figuring he had wandered long enough for the two to complete their "talk". He was surprised to find that the scene he had left looked a bit different from the one he had left. Instead of wearing the very revealing vortex dress, Twilight had donned a dress that went down to her ankles and had long sleeves, though Shadow could have sworn that the pattern was exactly the same as the dress before.

"Where did you find new clothes in this place?" he asked as he approached the two.

"We didn't," Twilight responded, still enjoying the swishing of the dress against her ankles. "This is the same dress I was wearing before, only slightly transformed." Sensing the question Shadow was going to ask, she responded preemptively, "No, I didn't do this with my magic. It seemed to do it on its own, responding to my will. And no, I didn't use a spell to read your mind. Those simply seemed like questions you were going to ask." She flashed a grin at him, her white teeth flashing. Shadow arched an eyebrow, impressed and slightly unnerved that this girl had gotten such a good read on him in such a short time.

"We should investigate the dress more closely later. I got a friend that would die to find out how it's doing that. Right now, though, I believe we are conducting a tour?" Twilight grinned as she accepted Shadow's outstretched arm, feeling a bit more at ease knowing that he would support her. She could walk around on her own now without any troubles, she knew, but something felt right about holding Shadow's arm. She couldn't really explain it, but it did.

The trio continued their tour, taking the most roundabout way to get to the waiting room that they could so Twilight could enjoy the experience for a bit longer. Approximately an hour had passed from the time they had left Twilight's recovery room until they had reached their final destination: the waiting room. Upon entering, they found the dozen soldiers who Shadow and Rouge had left behind were all gathered in a circle in various levels of nudity. In the center of the circle lay a moderately sized pile of clothes and a deck of cards. Apparently, the soldiers had thought to pass the time by playing strip poker. Fortunately, nobody in the room was completely naked, although, oddly enough, one had stripped down to his boxers and still wore socks and shoes.

Rouge had a fire blazing in her eyes as she stared daggers at the men, who had noticed the arrival of the three and gone silent. Twilight, with her brand new information about Mobian clothing customs, blushed so hard that her arms began to turn red. Shadow sighed and steered Twilight out of the room, back into the hallway. He closed the door behind the two of them. "Why did you leave Rouge in there?" Twilight asked, clearly flustered. Shadow held up a hand, indicating for her to be patient. He counted down in his mind, _3…2…1…_

"WHAT DID I TELL YOU!?" Rouge bellowed from behind the closed door. Shadow and Twilight covered their ears, wincing, as Rouge's voice pierced the thick door and stabbed at their ear drums. Shadow dragged Twilight away from the waiting room, Rouge's voice growing softer as they walked through several corridors. Shadow noted, with humor, that other people were following their lead, trying to get away from Rouge's raging roar. After a minute of walking, Rouge's raging scream had dulled to a quiet whisper, and the two uncovered their ears.

"Well that was… unexpected," Twilight commented, beginning to blush again at the memory of the men. "Is that how you normally greet people in large groups?"

"No, they did that just for you," Shadow responded casually. Twilight stared at him. "I was joking."

"Ooooh," she said before giggling slightly. "That's actually pretty funny."

"Yeah, I'm a master comedian," he replied sarcastically. "In all seriousness, that wasn't your typical encounter. In most cases, they would be fully clothed. However, they were playing a game of strip poker. That's a game where, every time you lose, you need to shed an article of clothing. They must have been really bored to resort to that."

"Yeah," Twilight yawned, stretching. It's probably close to midnight by now, Shadow thought.

"When Rouge gets like that, she can rage for hours on end. It would be best if we let her be for the night and got some rest. Since you've recovered, it wouldn't be right if you went back to the recovery room. How about sleeping over at my house?"

Twilight nodded her head wearily. "Sounds good to me. Where to?"

"You don't look like you'll make it there walking. Let's take a shortcut." Shadow grabbed her arm and closed his eyes in concentration. "CHAOS CONTROL!"

In a flash of green light, they were teleported into Shadow's house. "Here we are," he said. "Home sweet home." They had ended up in the living room of Shadow's house. Twilight looked around for any decorations that might adorn his walls, hoping for clues on his personality, but the wooden walls of the room were bare, void of any color. The only furniture in the room was a long, red couch with a lamp next to it and a bookcase. The bookcase was loaded up with books, contributing a bit of color and excitement to the lonely atmosphere. They appeared to be organized by some sort of complicated system, though Twilight could not figure it out at first glance. They looked intriguing, with peculiar titles such as "Raritisocrasy, A Written Log" and "Particle Physics Phor Phun." She would have to come back to those later, when she wasn't so sleepy.

"The bathroom and kitchen are there and there," he said, gesturing to doors on two sides of the room. He led her over to the third door, opposite the kitchen door. He opened the door with a soft creak. "And this," he finished, "is the bedroom." Twilight stepped in to find a nicely sized bed neatly made with white sheets. The bed faced a wide window that peered out onto the moon and stars that shone in the night. Twilight felt a twinge of sadness as she looked out onto the evening sky. These stars were different from the ones she had been seeing her whole life.

"You can take the bed in here. I'll take the couch," Shadow said, leaving Twilight gazing at the star studded sky. Before shutting the door behind him, however, he said, in an almost inaudible whisper, "Goodnight, Twilight. Sweet dreams." He closed the door firmly behind him.

The mental dam she had formed around herself since she got on the planet started to crack when she first saw the night sky through the bedroom window. She thought about how this was a foreign night sky, so very similar, yet incredibly different from Equestria's evening sky. This feeling of being able to practically reach out and touch Ponyville with her her hands, only to find that it was surrounded by glass, making her unable to do anything except bang on the glass, wanting to be let in. She eventually struck the glass hard enough for it to fragment and cascade down on her, stabbing her with memories of her friends and family. Pinkie Pie laughing happily, Applejack bucking apples, Rarity completing a new design, Rainbow Dash showing off, Fluttershy talking to her animals, sending notes to Princess Celestia, playing with her BBBFF, Shining Armor, and, cutting deepest into her, seeing Spike, her precious baby dragon, lying down, cuddled up and gently snoozing in his little dragon bed. When the rain of pain of her memories had dulled to a throb, Twilight was no longer able to see Ponyville through the glass. A metal barrier stood in her way this time, making her unable to see, or even hear Ponyville, lying in its depths. She cried out in frustration as the shards of her memory grew more piercing, stabbing and shoving, each trying to work its way to her heart. They almost did, until Twilight, as an instinctive reaction to protect herself, blacked out, her tear-streaked face falling onto the soft pillows at the head of the bed, seeking escape and solace in her dreams. She knew that her life would never be the same.

**Magic on Mobius: Chapter 5**

Location: Shadow's House

A thin stream of sunlight slipped through the window, bathing the bedroom in a gentle glow. As the sun rose higher, banishing the night, birds began to twitter merrily. The thin stream of concentrated sunlight slid slowly across the room as the sun rose higher, eventually landing on the sleeping face of Twilight Sparkle. The light shining through her eyelids, Twilight awoke. She sat up and stretched her arms high above her head, bed covers tumbling off her. _That's odd,_ she thought._I remember falling asleep on top of the sheets._ The thought of the previous night sent another wave of sadness crashing into her, but she held her ground and pushed it back. She had spent long enough wallowing in her sadness last night. She didn't need a replay of that to happen. She stood up slowly and practiced with her new body a bit more, making sure she had full control of it before leaving the bedroom, still wearing the dress she had worn the day before.

As she stepped outside the door, she noticed Shadow relaxed on the couch, feet stretched out in front of him, reading one of the many books that she had seen on his bookshelf. "Good morning!" she called cheerfully, grinning at Shadow as she walked over to him.

"'Morning," he mumbled, not looking up from his book. Twilight giggled softly, knowing what it was like to be caught up in a good book and unaware of what was going on around you. A small, sharp pain struck Twilight in the stomach and she realized she was ravenous. She crossed the room to open the door Shadow had said led into the kitchen and nudged it open.

The kitchen, like most of the rest of Shadow's house was small and might have been cozy if it had more furnishings to suppress the dark and lonely atmosphere. Another window was in here, bringing light into the room. To her left, some cabinets hung above a counter, cupboards and drawers beneath it. A refrigerator and an oven/stove hybrid stood slightly beyond the counter. To her right, a small, circular table stood, with two chairs pushed in at opposite sides. Deciding the cupboards and cabinets to be her best bet, Twilight headed to her left and opened the first cabinet she came upon. Empty. She continued down the line, open, open, open, open, empty, empty, empty, empty. She repeated the process with the cupboards and got the same result. All of them empty. She didn't bother with the drawers, figuring they were too small to contain anything edible. She pulled open the fridge, a blast of cold air greeting her. Aside from a few ice cubes, it was empty too. _How can he live in a house without any food?_ She wondered, her hunger pains growing. She exited the kitchen and went back to the living room, finding Shadow in the same position she had left him.

"Um, Shadow?" she said, attempting to draw his attention.

"Mmm?"

"You kinda don't have any food in your house." Shadow froze, his hand paused in the air as he turned a page. He closed the book and set it down with a sigh.

"Knew I forgot something," he mumbled.

"How are you living in a house without any food?" Twilight asked bluntly.

"Let's go get some food," he said, ignoring her question. Twilight was miffed he didn't answer her question, but shrugged it off, figuring he had his reasons for not telling her. He stood up and looked over at Twilight, glancing up and down her critically. "And maybe a set of clothes for you. Unless…" he trailed off, thinking. "Do you know how you got the dress to change last time?" he inquired.

Twilight searched her memory, attempting to recall the exact details of when the dress had transformed. "I don't remember doing it consciously. Rouge had just explained a few things to me, and I had wished that the dress wasn't so skimpy. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, voila."

Shadow nodded and headed over to the bookcase, searching the titles until he found the one he wanted. He pulled out a good-sized red volume and flipped through the pages, searching for something. When at last he had found what he was searching for, he walked over to Twilight, showing her a picture of a human girl wearing a pair of jeans and a navy blue v-neck, looking fairly fashionable. "Think you can get your dress to do a two piece?" he asked.

Twilight, however, hadn't heard him. She had pulled the book out of his hands and was now looking at the cover. " 'So Sew! An expert's guide to making clothes'?" she read off, her voice raising at the end as if asking a question.

Shadow shrugged. "I have a lot of free time on my hands. I typically spend it reading books and picking up useless skills. I never thought that this would ever actually come in handy, though," he chuckled. "So, think you can manage jeans and a shirt?"

"Let's find out." Twilight closed her eyes, concentrating on the picture of the clothes Shadow had shown her. She felt something wrapping around each of her legs, the open feeling of the dress vanishing. Her fur prickled slightly as she felt the sleeves of the dress retract. Her midsection felt a similar reaction as the dress shortened. When she could no longer feel any changes occurring, she opened her eyes and looked down at herself. She was now wearing a comfortable pair of blue jeans, the ends flaring out a bit around her ankles, just high enough that she wouldn't step on the backs and send herself tumbling. To her surprise and delight, her cutie mark had taken form on the front pockets of the jeans. Her shirt was a v-neck, very similar in design to that in the book, except that it was a bit short and showed her midsection. Also, the pattern on the shirt, instead of being a plain navy-blue, was still the swirling vortex pattern that had been on the dress, except the green had shifted to a purple color and the blue had become deeper and more rich. In her opinion, the outfit looked better like this. Then again, she wasn't a fashion expert like Rarity. _Rarity_. The euphoria that had entered her upon the successful transformation flickered for a moment, replacing the happiness in her eyes with the worry and fear she had felt the night before. Hurriedly, she hid it away, letting the euphoria overtake her again. She glanced up at Shadow, hoping he hadn't noticed the brief change in her mood. If he had, he didn't say anything. He was currently looking her up and down with a critical eye.

"Not bad," he critiqued. "Most girls would kill to have a dress-shirt-whateveritis like that. We seriously need to find out what is up with it. After fixing your hair," he added as an afterthought. Twilight looked up, as if trying to see the top of her head. Shadow chuckled. "There's a mirror in the bathroom, if you want to use it."

Twilight nodded her thanks and opened the door to the bathroom. Along with the typical things a bathroom contained, there was a full-length mirror resting on the not-so-far wall, making it so that Twilight could see her reflection immediately upon entering the restroom. Twilight froze, her hand still on the doorknob, as she gazed into her reflection. Though she had seen bits of herself several times and had adjusted to the sight, she was not prepared to look at herself full-on and see somebody else entirely. She grasped and held tight to the similarities she found between herself and the creature in the mirror, like the mane and eye color, but the overwhelming differences bore down on her, forcing her into a void of fear and sadness.

Shadow walked up behind her, standing in the doorframe. "What, do you need me to fix your hair too?" he joked before peering around her into the mirror. He was taken aback by what he witnessed. Her face was slack, her eyes unfocused, and sweat was beginning to form on her brow. Her eyes displayed the all-too-familiar pain of one who felt like they had lost everything, similar to the look she had on her sleeping face the night before, when Shadow had looked in on her. Shadow, understanding her pain, desperately wanted to prevent her from going through all the suffering and confusion that had followed him. He gently laid his hand on her shoulder and gave it a soft squeeze. Her eyes shot back into focus and she peered up at him through the mirror. Their eyes met, and Shadow squeezed her shoulder again.

"I understand what you're going through. If you need someone to confide in, I'm here for you. You can count on me."

Twilight's eyes held his gaze, the fear and sadness melting away to be replaced by calm and comfort. Suddenly, a small growl came from Twilight's stomach. She broke their gaze and looked down at the floor, embarrassed. Shadow removed his hand from her shoulder and adapted the neutral expression he usually wore. "Come on then, let's get your hair fixed."

Twilight looked back at her reflection, now noticing that her hair now held soft waves and looked a bit ruffled, but not in a bad way. "Nah, I'll leave it. I kinda like it like this. Besides, I don't have a brush or comb to use on it."

"Good point," Shadow noted. He held out his hand for her to take. "Shall we be off then?"

Twilight accepted the hand and held it gently. "Let's."

Shadow closed his eyes and focused on where he wanted to go. "Chaos Control," he whispered, and the two vanished from the house.

In a flash of green light, the two appeared in a small grassy field surrounded by woods on all sides. Before either could register anything else, somebody yelled, "Watch out!" A second later, Twilight and a blue blur hurdled into the trees, landing in a pile of bushes. The thing that had hurdled into her stood up quickly, rubbing its head. It was an anthropomorphic hedgehog, similar in looks to Shadow, except his fur and quills were a pure cobalt blue and his eyes emerald green instead of red. He glanced around, searching for whatever he had run into, and his eyes zeroed in on Shadow, who was walking towards him.

"Hey, Faker! Long time no see!" he called happily out as Shadow grew closer. Shadow merely passed him by, ignoring him completely.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" Shadow continued to ignore him, heading towards the bushes where he had landed.

"Hey!" As the blue hedgehog put his hand on Shadow's shoulder, obviously annoyed, Shadow turned his head and hit him with a murderous glare, causing the blue hedgehog to draw back his hand and retreat a few steps. Shadow bent down and reached into the bushes, pulling something out with both arms. To the hedgehog's immense surprise, Shadow dragged an unconscious, cute lavender girl out of the bushes._Oh man, did I do that?_ he thought to himself, worriedly. Shadow crouched by her and shook the girl's shoulders, calling out to her.

"Come on, sleepy head, rise and shine." The girl awoke with a groan and sat up, holding her hand to her head.

"Seriously, Rainbow Dash? Watch where you're going next time you're speeding around. You could really hurt somepony…" the girl trailed off as she looked up at the blue hedgehog that had run into her. "You're not Rainbow Dash," she said, her ears drooping slightly, clearly dismayed.

"Nah. The name's Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog, fastest thing alive," he responded flashing a grin and striking his signature pose.

"Yeah, I could feel that." She rubber her head, still slightly dazed from the impact.

Sonic winced at the pain in the girl's voice, approaching her. "Sorry about that. You and the Faker just appeared out of nowhere and I didn't have time to stop. You okay?"

"Yeah, I'll manage," the girl replied. She attempted to stand, but quickly crumpled as she put weight on her left hoof. "Ow…" she muttered quietly, under her breath, attempting, and failing, to hide the pain she felt.

Shadow, with a carefulness that Sonic had never seen in the faker, gently rolled up the edge of the girl's left jean leg, examining it closely. "Looks like your ankle's sprained. You're going to have to stay off it for a little while."

"I have a buddy who can help you get back on your feet real quick, if you'd like," Sonic cut in, feeling guilty about hurting the girl.

"You're talking about Tails, right?" Shadow asked. Sonic nodded. "As much as I hate to admit it, you're probably right about having him help her."

He turned to the girl. "You up for a bit of a road trip? It's not that far to Tails' house." The girl shrugged.

"Why not? The sooner I can walk around, the better."

"Oh, so you want to get there fast?" the blue hedgehog asked mischievously. Sonic scooped the girl up in his arms, finding that she was surprisingly light.

"What are you-" the girl began before Sonic took off at high speeds, racing through the forest. The girl shrieked and wrapped her arms around his neck and burying her head into his chest, terrified of the trees that Sonic just barely managed to sidestep. Sonic looked back to see that Shadow was following him and closing in, a look of anger on his face. Seeing this as a chance to annoy the faker, he swerved off his path and poured on the speed, attempting to lose Shadow. He did this for several seconds before looking back and realizing that Shadow was no longer following._Must have lost him._ He returned to his original path and forged onward. After a few seconds, Sonic skidded to a halt in a different clearing from the one they had just been in and stopped in front of a nice-looking house.

"Honey, I'm home," he called out into the house as he walked through the open door. A young looking two-tailed yellow fox looked up from the book he was reading.

"Sonic!" he replied happily as his best friend and hero entered. "Who's that?" he inquired, looking at the girl cradled in his arms.

"This girl I ran into while out for my midmorning run. Literally. Do you think you could grab me an icepack? I kinda sprained her ankle when we collided and landed in some bushes."

"Sure thing. Just set her down on the couch there while I get some ice," replied the fox as he scurried into another room.

Sonic looked down at the girl, still clinging onto his neck with her eyes squeezed shut. "You can let go of me now," he said. The girl, blushing slightly, eased her grip and set her arms on her lap. Being careful not to jostle her left leg, Sonic set the girl gently down on one side of the couch Tails had in his living room, pulling up an ottoman for the girl to rest her leg on. He plopped down next to her, staring.

"Yes?" she asked after some time, somewhat uncomfortable at being stared at.

"I don't think I've seen you around before. Can't say I've met any pony Mobians, either. A horse once, yes, but no ponies. What's your name?"

"Twilight Sparkle, but please, call me Twilight,"

"Well, Twilight, where ya from?"

"Another dimension," Shadow responded, walking into the room behind Tails, who was carrying an icepack.

"How did you-" Sonic began before being cut off.

"Tch. I knew you were heading over here, so I teleported here ahead of you. I'm not going to chase you when I know where you're going, Faker."

Sonic was about to retort, but was distracted when Twilight took a sharp intake of breath as the icepack was placed over her sprained ankle.

"Sorry, sorry!" Tails exclaimed as he backed away from Twilight.

"I'm good, I'm good," she replied, exhaling slowly. She looked at the two-tailed fox, an amused look appearing on her face. "You're Tails, I assume?" she inquired.

"Yeah. My real name is Miles Prower, but most people call me Tails. What's this I heard about you being from another dimension?" he asked curiously.

"I was just about to ask the same thing," Sonic added in.

Twilight gestured to the open space on the couch next to Sonic. "Please take a seat. It's a bit of a long story." She leaned her head back and looked at and upside-down Shadow, who had taken up leaning on the wall behind her. "You too, mister! I don't know the whole story from the Mobian side, so you're going to have to fill in where I can't, okay?" Shadow grumbled. "Please? For me?" she asked, her sweet, melodic voice taking on a pleading tone.

"Fine," he scoffed, plopping down on the opposite end of the couch, Tails sitting in between him and Sonic. Fortunately, it was a big couch, so nobody was cramped. They all settled in, relaxing for the long story.

"Okay," she began, Shadow with his arms folded and eyes closed, Tails looking at her eagerly, Sonic looking at her with some emotion she couldn't quite place. "For me, it all started out on a beautiful day in the kingdom of Equestria…"

**Magic on Mobius: Chapter 6**

Location: Tails' House

"…and then I was offered a job at G.U.N." Twilight ended with a note of finality. Sonic looked like he was going to bust a gut.

"So, let me get this straight, Robotnik built a machine to find an incredibly powerful life form, bring them to this dimension, and use them to kill me, and instead, he brought you here?!" he exclaimed before bursting out laughing.

"Instead?" she asked, her voice flat. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Shadow chuckled at how Sonic had backed himself into a corner. Sonic, sensing danger, quickly backtracked. "Er, nothing, nothing! It's just, you don't look like an all powerful life form ready to conquer all of existence! Yeah, that's it!" he explained hurriedly.

"Hmph. Well, this may surprise you, but I'm actually the most powerful unicorn in all of Equestria," Twilight said in a huff.

"Really? Hmm… That might explain why Robotnik picked up on your energy while you were doing that spell. Fortunately, he didn't plan for Shadow being there or you being such a good guy," Tails said. "Do you know what happened to that book you had with you when you were pulled into the vortex?" he inquired.

Twilight sighed sadly. "Unfortunately, no. I hope nothing too bad happened to it. Those might have been some of the most precious works in all of Equestria."

"Don't worry too much about it. It's probably still in that vortex if you didn't come out with it. We'll figure something out," Tails said optimistically. A large growl came from Twilight's stomach. She blushed furiously.

"Hungry?" Sonic asked, chuckling.

"A tad bit, yeah," she responded.

"Wait here," he said as he stood up, careful not to jostle her.

"Because I was going to go running away if you didn't tell me to?" she asked wryly. Sonic laughed. The girl had a pretty good sense of humor. He sprinted out the front door and, not three seconds later, he arrived back in front of them, carrying a small brown bag.

"Chili dogs all around!" he said excitedly, pulling out three small, tinfoil-wrapped objects. He tossed one each to Tails and Twilight, while Shadow stood and walked behind the couch. Twilight caught hers and looked at it curiously.

"What's a 'chili dog'?" she asked.

Sonic stepped back in mock horror. "You don't know what a chili dog is?" he asked, pouring on the drama. "Well then, open that baby up and take a bite. You'll love it!" Sonic then proceeded to tear the wrapping off of a long, thin piece of bread with meat and cheese all over the top. He took two monstrous bites, and in a few seconds, the chili dog was gone. Twilight was looking at him in horror.

"You eat meat?!" she asked, horrified.

"Yup. One of the benefits of being top of the food chain. We kinda need to eat meat to stay alive, because of all the proteins and stuff packed into it. I don't know about all the sciencey stuff, but it tastes good! You should eat yours. You're going to need to eat meat at some point in time in order to live on Mobius, so may as well have your first experience with the best kind: a chili dog!"

Twilight looked at the wrapped chili dog nervously. She unwrapped a bit of it and took a small bite. Her nervous face switched to one of happiness, as she swallowed and quickly took another bite, savoring the rich flavor.

"Told ya it was great," Sonic said, seeing the look on Twilight's face. Twilight rolled her eyes and devoured the chili dog, finishing it off almost as quickly as Sonic had.

"Now that everyone's had their fill, I suggest we take a look at that leg of yours," Tails said, standing. "My lab is just down the hall. Think you can make it?"

Twilight stood on her right foot, putting no weight on her left. She gently put some pressure on it, but pulled back quickly, wincing in pain. She jolted in surprise as she felt strong hands pick her up from behind and cradle her. She looked up into Shadow's face.

"Hey!" she protested, but Shadow ignored her, following Tails as he led the trio to his lab. "Honestly, what is it with me being carried today?" she grumbled, crossing her arms and putting on a pout. Shadow simply smirked and continued forward.

When they arrived at the lab, Twilight forgot all about being mad and stared around in amazement. There were gadgets and gizmos aplenty. There were whozits and whatsits galore. Wait, no, that's _The Little Mermaid_. The room was filled with machines of all shapes and sizes, and was absolutely massive. Tools and parts were strewn about here and there, making walking through the room like walking through a mine field. One false step and you ended up hopping on one foot, some sort of sharp metal object impaled in your shoe.

"Sorry about the mess," Tails apologized as they began to maneuver their way across the room. They reached an area that appeared to be devoted to medical equipment, complete with a hospital bed. Shadow set Twilight down on the hospital bed as Tails trotted off, looking for something. Sonic stood to the side, tapping his foot impatiently, not entirely sure what to do.

"Looks like somebody is a bit impatient," Twilight giggled.

"Maybe a little bit," Sonic responded. He realized he was staring at her and looked away quickly, blushing slightly. He scratched the back of his head as he cast about for a topic of conversation. "Your outfit is pretty cool. Not exactly something I'd wear, but it suits you. Where'd you get it?" he asked, figuring he'd take a shot at clothing, since that seemed to be one thing girls were universally attracted to. Or dimensionally, anyway. Whatever.

"I don't know," she responded. Sonic did a Shadow and arched an eyebrow. "When I came out of the vortex, I was simply wearing it. Or rather, I was wearing this," Twilight closed her eyes, her brow furrowed in concentration. The v-neck and jeans she had been wearing fused together, turning into a short, tight, strapless dress with the same pattern as the shirt, except light blue-green in color instead of dark blue-purple.

"Okay, I'm not normally into clothes, but THAT was way past cool," Sonic said in awe. His eyes lingered for a bit too long on her and she began to blush. He looked away, his cheeks glowing pink, too. Shadow looked back and forth between the two of them, his gaze preplexed and slightly concerned.

At that moment, Tails returned, his arms loaded with gear. He set it down carefully in the empty space beside Twilight. He rifled through it for a sec, then pulled out a pair of green-tinted sunglasses and put them on.

"X-ray glasses. They'll let me see what exactly the damage done to your leg is," he said, answering Twilight's unspoken question. He pressed a little button on the side of the glasses and looked down at Twilight's left leg.

"Yowch. That ankle's twisted pretty bad. You're lucky it's not broken. How fast did you run into her, Sonic?" Tails inquired. Sonic looked away, whistling. "Well, fortunately, I think I have something that can heal this real quick. One sec." He rifled through the equipment once more, searching for something. When he found what he was looking for, he held it up in triumph. It was a vial of small, glowing green liquid. He uncorked it and, with a steady hand, poured a small stream of it onto Twilight's left ankle.

A brilliant purple light erupted the moment it made contact with her skin. The boys were all blinded by it and turned hurriedly away to hide their eyes. After a few moments, the light dimmed slightly.

"What was in that vial, Tails?" Sonic asked, shading his eyes from the still bright light.

"I-it was some distilled Chaos energy," he stammered.

"It was WHAT!?" Shadow and Sonic shouted in unison.

"I'd used it before to heal-up any minor cuts or wounds I'd gotten in the past from lab accidents. I figured it would work with her ankle!" he said defensively.

The light had dimmed enough for them to be able to see properly. To their surprise, before them sat not their injured friend, but an entirely different person. Her fur was the same lavender as Twilight's, but it seemed to be giving off the bright purple light that had encompassed them before, though more faintly now. Her clothes looked-there was no other word for it-very regal. She wore a long, flowing, gown, the blue-green of Twilight's dress, except instead of the vortex pattern, the blue and green now formed incredibly intricate designs across the gown. Its skirt, puffing out a bit above the ankles, rustled back and forth gently, as if being gently nudged by the wind, despite the fact that the air was stagnant. The girl's hair was the same color as Twilight's except instead of being styled like that, her hair flowed out behind her with a gentle shimmer in it. It, too, waved as if being blown by a gentle breeze. Her tail was similar in this fashion. On her back, there was a beautiful pair of wings, folded neatly against her. Oh her head was a horn, slightly longer than Twilight's had been. A tiara with Twilight's cutie mark on it sat in front of it. The girl opened her eyes, which were a beautiful purple color. She looked down at herself, a look of shock crossing her face.

"What?" she asked in a melodic, familiar voice to no one in particular.

"…Twilight? Is that you?" Shadow asked, his voice disbelieving. She nodded. "You look... stunning," he said, not realizing he had said it aloud.

Twilight, as she had been doing quite often as of late, blushed. The purple light that had surrounded her finally dissipated completely. Twilight reverted back to the way she was before Tails had given her the bit of Chaos energy. A stunned silence filled the room for several seconds.

"Okay, what the hay just happened?" Twilight asked.

"Well, it appears you had a reaction with the Chaos energy I gave to you and transformed for a brief moment," Tails speculated. "Sonic, Shadow and I also transform when we have the seven Chaos Emeralds. But why would you react with the Chaos energy? It wasn't even at the same power level as the Chaos Emeralds! Almost nobody can transform. You haven't been exposed to large amounts of it before…" He trailed off, thinking, his hand under his chin. He suddenly looked up, an idea crossing his mind. "Twilight, mind if I see your dress for a sec?"

Twilight shook her head, changing the dress into its elongated form to make it easier for Tails to touch without being awkward. It was unnecessary, though. Tails pressed another button on his glasses. Immediately, they began beeping crazily, shaking and smoking. Tails had just enough time to hurl them away before they exploded.

"And what exactly was the purpose of that?" Shadow asked.

"Well, those glasses were supposed to sense power levels and their components along with function as portable x-rays. When I looked at Twilight and pressed the button, they went crazy with the power readings. I had just enough time to see what her power was comprised of before I had to throw them away." He turned to Twilight.

"Your power is currently composed of two things: your magic, and Chaos energy. You have it diffused across your body, and it's really concentrated in your dress. I believe I have a hypothesis as to why you are currently in the state you are in. From what you told me, you went in the vortex as a quadruped unicorn and emerged as a biped, wearing that dress. While you were in the vortex, you must have absorbed some of the energy that the Chaos Emerald was providing for the vortex. It infused in you, and probably transformed you into a Mobian as a side effect. Chaos energy is known to do that sometimes. The dress probably formed around you then, although I'm not sure why. I believe it's made out of the vortex itself."

"That makes sense," Twilight said, nodding slowly. "But what was with that getup I was in earlier?"

"That, I'm not so sure about. I'm fairly sure it was a result of coming into direct contact with Chaos energy, but I wonder why it gave you wings."

Twilight thought silently on this for a second. "Are there any special features you have in your transformed state?" she inquired.

"We become much more powerful and can all fly. Also, we become practically invulnerable in later stages of transformation," Sonic responded, not sure how this related to her having wings.

Twilight nodded, her suspicion confirmed. "Then my transformation nearly matches up with yours. For a few moments there, I became an alicorn."

**Magic on Mobius: Chapter 7**

Location: Tails' Laboratory (Adding an extra syllable to laboratory since 1992), Mobius

Tails and Sonic looked at Twilight curiously. "What's an alicorn?" Tails asked.

Twilight provided the same explanation she had given to Shadow the other day, adding on little bits and pieces to the explanation. "Alicorns have some of the most powerful magic in Equestria. Equestria's three current Alicorns, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadence, all have power over the most important parts of Equestria: the Sun, the Moon, and Love. Princess Celestia raises the sun, Princess Luna, the moon, and Princess Cadence can make uncaring or frustrated people feel loving. They aren't invulnerable, though, just immortal."

Tails and Sonic stared at her for a moment in slight disbelief, but handled the information fairly well. They had seen and heard stranger things in their adventures, but this was a new one. Sonic shrugged, "Why not? I've been to enough worlds to believe practically anything by now. It's kinda cool that some Chaos Energy can turn you into an immortal like Shadz here."

"Don't call me 'Shadz'," Shadow said venomously. Twilight's eyes widened as she looked at Shadow.

"Shadow, you didn't tell me that you're immortal."

"It didn't seem significant," Shadow said nonchalantly.

"Didn't seem significant?! You can live forever! How is that not significant!?"

"I mentioned before that I am the Ultimate Lifeform. You should have gathered something was different about me when I said that."

"Hold on a second, you never told me you were the Ultimate Lifeform!"

Sonic guffawed loudly. "Shadow went a whole day without bragging about being the Ultimate Lifeform? That's a new record!" he sniggered.

Shadow glared at Sonic for a moment, debating on whether to ignore his comment or counter it with a clever retort. He apparently decided on the former, for he turned his gaze back to Twilight, adopting his typical neutral look.

"No? My mistake, then. I am the Ultimate Lifeform, and I am immortal," he stated bluntly.

Twilight seemed to be bursting with curiousity. "That's incredible! Where you born immortal? If not, how did you become immortal? Why do you call yourself the Ultimate Lifeform? Are you-"

"I'd rather not talk about it presently," Shadow said, looking away and crossing his arms.

Twilight was beginning to grow frustrated, yet curious at the same time. _This is the second time Shadow's avoided talking about himself, _she thought._ Why is he so adamant about telling so little about himself to me? Most ponies- er, I guess the term is 'people' on Mobius- are more than happy to share everything about themselves when prompted, some even when unprompted, yet Shadow refuses to talk about himself. What could cause him to be so adamant about revealing himself to me? _She was about to ask him when Tails, no longer able to contain his curiousity and excitement, burst out

"You're a unicorn who can use magic, you can turn into an alicorn, apparently, when you come into contact with Chaos Energy, and, to top it all off, you're from an entirely different dimension! This is all so fascinating! Can you tell me more about your planet?"

Twilight nodded, distracted from her previous train of thought, always happy to explain things. "Sure, what would you like to know?"

"Everything."

Twilight chuckled, amused at the small fox's thirst for knowledge. "All in due time, my young fox," she replied in a scholarly fashion, suspecting that if they started talking now, they would be at it for hours. "Let me check something first."

She slid off the bed, landing lightly on her right foot. Shadow and Sonic both tensed up subconsciously. She eased a bit of weight onto her left foot. Then, with a look of glee, shifted her full weight to her left foot and began to hop up and down. Shadow and Sonic relaxed, both slightly amused at her kiddish display. Shadow even smirked a little.

"Looks like the Chaos energy you used earlier did the trick, Tails! My ankle's all better!" she said happily as she stopped hopping and stood normally.

"That's great! Now, about your planet-" Tails began before being cut off by Sonic.

"Planet, shmanet. Save the egghead talk for when you guys are alone. Say, you haven't been on Mobius for very long, right Twi?" Sonic asked.

"Correct," she responded.

"So you don't know much about what everything's like, right?"

"Riiiiight…" she said slowly, growing wary. Sonic grinned.

"Then what you need is a tour of Mobius - Sonic style."

"What-" Twilight began before she was interrupted by Sonic cradling her and rushing outside the house, prepared to take her on a quick trip around Mobius. Before you could say déjà vu, Shadow managed to get ahead of Sonic and stuck out a leg, making Sonic face-plant and sending Twilight flying forward. Luckily, she managed to land firmly on her hooves, stumbling a bit, but otherwise okay.

"Sweet Celestia, my leg is fine! I am not an invalid! I can walk fine on my own, thank you very much!" she fumed, helping Sonic up off the ground regardless. "Stop thinking you can just pick me up and carry me off wherever and whenever you please!" she said, annoyance bubbling behind her voice. Shadow smirked behind Twilight's back, taking pleasure in Sonic's scolding.

"I can feel you smirking, Shadow. That goes for you too, mister!" she said without turning around. The smirk quickly fell off Shadow's face, followed by a neutral look. _How does she do that?_

"Thank you," she said, her anger and annoyance rapidly fading. "Now, Sonic, your offer to take me on a tour of Mobius is greatly appreciated, and I would love to take you up on it, but I have one condition: Shadow has to come with me,"

"What?! Why?!"

"Well, The Commander charged him with accompanying me on this planet until I make my decision about joining G.U.N, so for the time being, I go where he goes. I don't want to get him in trouble with his boss." Twilight turned to Shadow, looking somewhat sheepish. "That is, of course, if you don't mind. Can I go Shadow? Please?" she asked, putting on a pout.

Shadow attempted to resist the cuteness of the face, looking away. His gaze fell upon Sonic, who had a smug grin plastered across his face as he caught Shadow's eye and looked back and forth between him and Twilight. Twilight, who didn't seem to notice what Sonic was doing, grew shocked when Shadow's expression went from neutral to a deep scowl, and she could have sworn that his cheeks had the slightest red undertone to them.

"Fine. Do what you will. I have other business I need to attend to, anyways. I don't need to go with you everywhere. The Commander was just being ridiculous. Go have your little tour with Sonic. I'll see you around," he spat before sprinting away.

"Shadow, wait!" Twilight called after him, but her call fell on deaf ears as Shadow disappeared in a flash of green light.

"Let the Faker go. He'd make the tour way too depressing anyways," Sonic said, resting a hand on Twilight's shoulder.

Twilight continued to stare at the spot where Shadow had been standing before using Chaos Control. She sighed dejectedly before turning to face Sonic. A thought suddenly occurred to her.

"Hey, Sonic?"

"Yeah?"

"Why do you keep calling Shadow 'Faker'?"

Sonic chuckled. "Funny story, that. Tell you what, I'll explain why I keep calling Shadz 'Faker' if you let me take you on that tour. Deal?" Sonic asked, extending his hand.

"It's a deal," she responded, giving his hand a firm shake.

"Excellent. And I know exactly where we should go first. Although…" He turned away and let out a long, heavy sigh. "…it's a few miles away. It'd be such a shame to have to cut the tour short because of a long travel time." He sneaked a quick sidelong glance at Twilight. "If only there were some way we could get there faster," he said dramatically, striking a mournful pose.

Twilight rolled her eyes at the hedgehog's terrible acting. "Fine. You can carry me while you run." Sonic pumped his fist in victory. "But could you **please** go a little slower? I would like to actually see your world while you're running."

"Do I have to?" he whined.

"Pleeeeease? For me?" she asked, widening her eyes and putting on a pout.

"HNNNNNNNNG!" Sonic clutched at his chest and doubled over in pain.

"Are you alright?! What's wrong?!" Twilight asked, alarmed, rushing to his side.

"I'm… good…" he responded between pants. "Just… don't go… doing that… again… okay?"

"I'm not exactly sure what I did, but I'm so sorry! I'll try my best not to do it again! But are you sure you're okay?"

Regaining his breath, Sonic stood fully upright and struck his trademark pose. "Yup. Totally fine now." Twilight looked at him suspiciously. "Really! Look, see?" he said, running blurred circles around her. Twilight attempted to follow his movement, but her eyes ended up spinning around crazily. She shook her head to get her vision back in focus as the hedgehog came to a stop in front of her. "Totally fine. Can we go on the tour **now**? I'll even go a little slower for you."

Twilight grinned. "Sure."

Sonic scooped her up in his arms bridal-style, and just as they were about to take off, they heard Tails' voice calling out from inside the house.

"Sorry I took so long coming out, guys, but you knocked over half the stuff in my lab when you ran out, Sonic! You really need to stop doing that inside other peoples'…" Tails trailed off as he walked out of the house and looked at the position his idol and acquaintance were in. "… Am I interrupting something?"

"Not really. I'm just taking Twilight here on a tour of Mobius. Wanna tag along?"

"That's okay, I'm good. I've got to rearrange the lab after you turned it into a hurricane zone."

"Heehee. Yeah, sorry about that, little buddy."

"Would you like some help cleaning it up, Tails? I'd be more than happy to help you, if you'd like it," Twilight added, starting to maneuver her way out of Sonic's grip.

"Thanks for the offer, Twilight, but I think I can manage. I've been meaning to reorganize the lab anyways. Have fun with your tour, you two!"

With that, the hedgehog took off, leaving a blue and purple blur behind him. Tails sighed and turned back to his house, chuckling slightly. _I'm sure taking her on that tour isn't all you're going to do, Sonic, knowing you._ Just as he was about to cross the threshold into his house, though, he stopped and slapped a hand to his forehead. "Shoot! I don't know how that Chaos Energy I gave her's going to affect her in the long run! It gives Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow and I an energy boost to run off of after it wears off, but who knows what it'll do to Twilight! I've gotta find her, fast!"

**Magic on Mobius: Chapter 8**

Location: A Forest, Mobius (So very specific, ain't it?)

True to his word, Sonic went slow enough so that Twilight would be able to see the beauty of the forest as they breezed through it. At first, Twilight didn't even see the peaceful scene around her with her eyes squeezed shut as she went rigid, waiting for Sonic's inevitable collision with a tree. But as time passed and the collision never came, she slowly opened her eyes. A deep green grass covered the forest floor. Small patches of multicolored wildflowers cropped up here and there. The leaves of the trees overhead cast a shadow over the landscape, allowing small patches of light to seep through and speckle the forest. It made the forest feel, oddly enough, a bit warmer and cozier to Twilight.

Sonic moved through the forest as if he were the wind itself: gentle, yet spirited in his movements. He jostled her so little, Twilight could barely tell he was running at all. Slowly, with the combination of the beautiful scenery and Sonic's smooth gait, Twilight relaxed. She became so absorbed with gazing at the world around her, listening to the soft twitter of birds and taking it all in that she didn't notice herself slowly resting her head on Sonic's chest. Sonic did, though. He peeked down at her and saw, with a smile, that she was totally relaxed, completely entranced by Mobius's beauty. His microscopic patience with going slow quickly expended itself, though, and a moment of sprinting and blurred motion later, they were atop a hill overlooking the first stop on their tour,

"Station Square!" Sonic announced as they looked down at the cityscape. "Home of the…" He trailed off, screwing up his face in concentration. "Actually, I have no idea what it's home of." After a few more seconds of pondering, Sonic shrugged. "Meh. Whatever. Wanna see it up close?" Twilight nodded eagerly, curiosity and excitement gleaming in her eyes. "Alright then, let's go!"

Sonic took off, sprinting through the city at high speeds, weaving in and out of traffic and taking dozens of sharp turns. He screeched to a halt just beside one of his favorite parts of town: the park. He set Twilight down and inhaled deeply. "Ah, smell that city air. So, whaddaya think?"

Twilight looked around her in awestruck silence, turning in a slow circle, taking in the new surroundings.

"Well?"

"Ohmygoodnessthisissoamazinghowarethosepeculiarcarriagesgoingsofastwithoutanybodypullingthemisitsomesortofmagicorsomethingelsehowarethebuildingssotallthey'realmostasbigasCelestia'scastlemaybebiggertheylooklikethey'remadeoutofglassaretheymadeoutofglasswhatisthatpeculiarscenttherearesomanyhumansandMobiansherewheredotheyalllivedotheyliveinthosebuildingstogetherwhatkindofoccupationsdotheyhaveiseveryoneherebipedaldotheyallhavehandshowareinterspeciesrelationshavehumansandMobianslivedsidebysideforsolongand-" She was cut off by Sonic clamping a hand over her mouth, looking slightly dizzy.

"I'm the fastest thing alive, but even I couldn't keep up with how fast you're talking. Never thought I'd say this, but do you think you could slow it down a little? You're giving me a little headache."

"Sorry," she giggled as Sonic removed his hand from her mouth. "I just did a Pinkie Pie."

"What's a 'Pinkie Pie'?" Sonic asked.

Twilight's expression went from sheepish to downtrodden. She turned away from Sonic, lowering her head slightly.

"Pinkie Pie is one of my best friends from Ponyville. She's a hyperactive, crazy pony who absolutely adores parties. She can be a bit of a spazz at times, but she can always put a smile on your face, no matter how down you feel." Her voice cracked a bit at the end.

"Twilight…"

"Sorry, it's just…throughout most of my life, I've never really had friends. They just never seemed important enough for me to set aside the time of day for. I always thought I could do things on my own, without any help. But that all changed not too long ago when I was forced to confront Nightmare Moon. Without the help of Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy, I wouldn't have been able to stop her from making night eternal nor return Princess Luna back to her old self. Ever since then, we've been the best of friends. We've stuck together through thick and thin, learning about the magic of Friendship and even saving Equestria a few times along the way. No matter what the challenge, they've always been there, right by my side, ready to help me. And now…I'm all alone. I might never even see them again, and this all just feels so hopeless. Your world is wonderful and all, Sonic, but I just can't stop this dread from building." Twilight swiped a hand across her face. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't burden you with my problems. Just forget about it."

She felt a hand rest on her shoulder. It turned her around so that she stood looking into its owner's concerned emerald eyes.

"Twilight, there's no way I'm going to 'just forget about it'. I know you must be feeling like there's nobody in the world that you can turn to, but you can count on me. Believe me, I understand what you're going through. I've felt like you have myself a couple of times, and I know that this whole thing is incredibly daunting, but you just have to have faith that you will see them again. From one inter-dimensional traveler to another, the one thing I can tell you is to never give up hope. Where there's a will, there's a way and all that jazz."

"But how could I possibly go back to my dimension? That inter-dimensional portal device that brought me here was destroyed when Robotnik blew up his base!"

"Hmm, good point." Sonic paused for a moment, looking thoughtful. Then he snapped his fingers and facepalmed. "Duh, Sonic, how did you not think of this before? The Chaos Emeralds!"

"The Chaos Emeralds? What good would they do? Don't they just power you up?" Twilight asked.

"The Chaos Emeralds aren't just any old power-ups. They've got mystical properties that allow a person to distort time and space, even allowing a person to hop through dimensions! If we gather all seven, we can send you back to your world! Then-"

"-I could see my friends again! Wait, 'we'?"

"Of course! What, didja think I'd leave ya hangin'? I'd never leave my friends hangin'!" he exclaimed.

Twilight cringed slightly at how eerily similar Sonic had sounded to Rainbow Dash, but quickly smiled. "You and I are friends?"

"Well, yeah. Anybody who shares chilidogs with me is a pal of mine," Sonic responded lightly.

"Oh, thank you so much!" she exclaimed as she hugged him tightly around the middle, overcome with joy at the fact that she would soon be able to return home. Sonic almost drew back in surprise, but caught himself at the last second. He rested his right hand behind her head and placed his left hand on her upper back, a tad bit unsure about what else he should do.

After a few seconds, Sonic decided to break the comfortable silence. "You know, if you keep on hugging me, I'm going to think you've got a thing for me," he teased. Twilight, realizing what she was doing, leapt about 5 feet backwards, blushing furiously and stammering an apology. Sonic burst out laughing. "Relax, Twilight, I was kidding! But man, you should've seen the look on your face! Classic!" he said as his laughing downgraded to a light snickering.

"Anywho, not that we've got all that serious business out of the way, shall we continue our tour?" he asked. "There's still a whole bunch of neat places that you haven't seen yet."

"But the Chaos Emeralds-"

"Will still be waiting for us when we get back. Besides, there scattered everywhere anyway, so it'll take a little while until we can find them again. So, shall we go?" he asked again.

Twilight paused a moment to consider, then smiled and nodded.

"Sweet! Let's juice!" Sonic said as he picked up Twilight once again and took off, creating a wind that rustled the trees lining the park path.

The rest of the city looked pretty much the same as they had seen entering it, just building upon building block after block, so Sonic didn't bother slowing down or taking the scenic route. He simply sprinted down the solid yellow line dividing the traffic lanes, dodging and jumping over any cars that swerved in front of him. Though Twilight had gained more trust for Sonic, she didn't trust the loud, fast vehicles that seemed to be everywhere and remained tense until they exited the city and were speeding along an abandoned highway. There wasn't very much to see there, just a road stretching on endlessly through a bunch of dirt, so Twilight decided to fill the silence between the two with conversation.

"So, Sonic…" Twilight began, shouting over the wind that whipped against them.

"Yeah, Twilight?" Sonic responded, slowing down a little to hear her easier, but still keeping up a speed way beyond that a car could drive.

"You said earlier that you would explain why you call Shadow 'Faker'…"

"Oh yeah, I did, didn't I?" He chuckled again, remembering the circumstances surrounding that. "Ya see, when Shadow first appeared, everyone that saw him thought that he was me, hence I call him 'Faker' for faking being me."

"They did what?! You two look nothing alike!" Twilight exclaimed.

"I know, right? I was just as confused as you are when everybody started thinking that I stole the Project Shadow file and that Chaos Emerald. It got pretty screwy, but it all managed to work itself out in the end," he recalled.

"Shadow was a thief? But he works for the government!"

"Shadz was pretty messed up back then. He even teamed up with Robuttnik to try and… it was either take over the world or destroy it, I can't remember which. But then he got things all straightened out, and now he's a good guy… mostly. He's still got that 'I'm the best, so leave me alone or die' attitude, but he's not out for vengeance on humanity anymore, so that's a good thing."

"That kind of reminds me of Discord. Discord was a corrupted, evil God of Chaos, but after he and Fluttershy became friends and he had to choose between creating chaos and being friends with Fluttershy, his friendship with her won out and he became good… mostly. But does he really have that sort of attitude? He seemed to be a bit reclusive and antisocial, but he never seemed like that to me."

"That's pretty weird. He usually starts his conversations by dissing whoever he's talking to. Huh. Well, congratulations Twilight, you got him to drop his high and mighty attitude! How'dja do it?"

"I don't know… he was kind to me from the beginning. Quiet, but kind in his own way. I thought that was just the way he was."

Not sure what else to say, Twilight decided to focus on the scenery. She hadn't really noticed, but they had long since abandoned the highway and were running through a beautiful grassy plain now. But it looked… peculiar. The grass altered between a vibrant bright green and a deeper forest green in a checkered pattern. Even the patches of soil uncovered by grass were check-patterned, altering between a deep and light brown. There were even random raised platforms here and there, and Twilight could swear that she had seen a loop-the-loop a little ways back.

"Sonic, where are we?" she asked, completely confused by her surroundings.

"This is the Green Hill Zone," he said matter-of-factly.

"Ummm, I think I need a little bit more elaboration than that. This place just looks so different from the places I have seen so far."

"Oh, that's because Mobius used to be two different planets: there was Mobius, then there was Earth. Mobius was inhabited by Mobians only, no humans except for Robuttnik. Earth was inhabited by humans, no Mobians. One day, Robuttnik gathered all seven Chaos Emeralds and tried to use them with some machine of his, but the machine went haywire and the Chaos Emeralds ended up sending some of us from Mobius onto Earth. Long story short, we crashed on Earth for a little while at my human friend's place, we gathered all seven Emeralds again, and instead of them sending us back to Mobius, they fused Mobius and Earth. So now, Mobius is pretty much a jigsaw puzzle of Mobius and Earth. Fortunately, no major cities from either planet were removed. Everybody on the planet decided to use Mobius as the name for the planet cuz it sounded cooler. So, what you see here is from Mobius while Station Square and most of that forest was from Earth. Get it?"

Twilight nodded slowly, taking in the information. "Okay, I think I got it. But I've got two more questions."

"Somebody's curious," he chuckled.

"What can I say? I like to get all my facts straight," she responded.

"Okay then, shoot."

"One: why do you keep on calling Robotnik 'Robuttnik'?" she asked, genuinely curious at the hedgehog's strange nicknames he came up with.

He grinned. "That's easy, it's cuz he's got such a large rear-end!"

"Oh, so that's what the flank is called…"

"What was that?" he asked, not quite hearing her.

"Nothing!" she said quickly. "It's just that when I first saw him, I thought he looked remarkably egg-shaped."

"Egg-shaped… Hmmm… Yeah, I guess he does look like a bit of an egg man." Sonic skidded to a halt. "That's it! Eggman! That's what he is! Thanks for the new nickname, Twi, I've been trying to come up with a new one for Robobutt for AGES!"

"No problem, glad I could help," she said as Sonic resumed running. "Now, question two, where exactly are we going?"

"Oh, you're going to love this place," he said as they exited the Green Hill Zone and began scaling a mountain. "We'll be able to see it once we get to the peak of this mountain." He bounded from boulder to boulder, sprinted up slopes, and plunged through pine trees interspersed along the mountain until they finally reached the peak.

"There it is," Sonic said, pointing to a speck on the horizon. "Angel Island."

**Magic on Mobius: Chapter 9**

Location: Mountain overlooking (or underlooking) Angel Island

Twilight looked down in the general direction Sonic was pointing, looking for an island of some sort, but all that she saw beneath was more mountains and a small valley running the length of the pass.

"I'm not really seeing an island down there, Sonic. Just more mountains," she said, slightly worried about her friend's (oh how she loved that word!) sanity.

Sonic glanced over at where she was looking, then chuckled. "That's cuz you're looking in the wrong direction," he said. He set her down and made sure that she was balanced. Then, placing both hands on the side of her head, he angled her head upwards until he was sure that she would be able to see the island in the distance. "See, right there. That tiny little speck in the air is Angel Island."

Twilight saw the miniscule dot and turned to look at Sonic in amazement. "You have cities in the sky too? How do creatures get up there? I mean, I guess there are some Mobians that have wings to get up there, and there are always hot air balloons, but they seem awfully inconvenient to use frequently. Of course, I'm assuming that all creatures are able to stand on Angel Island. For all I know, only certain creatures would be able to stand on it. And, based on how far away it is, it looks incredibly massive. How do you manage to get a cloud to stay together like that for so long? Is it similar to how we do it? Or is it even a cloud? If not, how does it stay up in the air? And how does-"

"Twilight, you're doing that thing with your words again that makes my head hurt," Sonic groaned.

"Sorry, sorry! But since neither of us have wings, how are we going to get up there?"

"That's easy! All we gotta do is…" Sonic trailed off. "Huh, what do we gotta do?" he asked himself, scratching his head. "Me and Tails usually use one of our planes to get up there. I probably shoulda thought this one through a bit more. Darn, and I was hoping you'd get to meet my frenemy."

"Frenemy?"

"Yeah. You know, a guy who's your friend and enemy at the same time? Like a rival, sorta."

"Oh. I never knew that had a technical term for it."

"Well, it's not the term for it, per se, it's just… what's the word for street lingo that's used pretty often, but isn't in the dictionary?"

"Slang?"

"That's the one. Yeah, it's slang. I'm sure you two would really hit it off great. He's cool with brainy people. But how're we gonna get up there…"

Twilight closed her eyes for a moment, thinking hard. Sonic did similar, although his thinking involved tapping his foot impatiently. A silence descended between them, only broken by the steady rhythm of Sonic's foot tapping. "I got it!" Twilight exclaimed. Sonic jumped back, startled, and wobbled on the edge of the peak for a moment, one foot on the ledge and the rest hanging over. He wind-milled his arms, attempting to regain balance, but it was no use. Just as his foot lost purchase and he was about to go falling down, Twilight grabbed one of his arms and, with some difficulty, hauled him back onto the flattened peak.

"Well, that was a close one," Sonic laughed jovially, looking down the cliff-face. "So, what were you gonna say?"

Twilight looked at him questioningly. "You almost died just now. You realize that, right?"

"Well, I wouldn't say 'almost died'. Maybe 'almost fell', but not 'almost died'. I would've just flipped over and run back up here, that easy."

"Uh huh. I'm sure that you would've done that. Now, as I was saying before you almost tumbled to your death-"

"I wasn't going to die!"

"-if you could get us closer to the island, I think I would be able to teleport us up there."

"Whoa, you can teleport!? Way past cool!"

Twilight's ears flattened and she looked away, kicking around a rock with her foot. "N-not really. It's just basic unicorn magic." She looked up intently. "Although, my magic may work differently not that I'm in this body," she speculated, more to herself than to Sonic. "Give me a moment, let me make sure that I can still use my magic the same way. I did it before with that metal, but that was more subconscious. Let me see if I can do it willingly…"

Twilight glanced around for something to test her magic on and happed upon a decently-sized rock about half as big as she was. Her eyes narrowed the tiniest bit and focused on flowing energy into her horn. A magenta aura surrounded her horn and the rock as it levitated from the ground and performed figure eights in the air.

"Good, I can still levitate things. Now, how about…" The rock stopped whizzing about and came to a stop in front of her. With a small _poof_, it turned into a large, delicious-looking pie. "Okay, now for the final test." She shut her eyes lightly and the orange disappeared altogether! Sonic, who had been standing to the side watching in amazement, began to slowly clap.

"Wow… that was amazing! You made that pie disappear!"

"Did I, though? Look above you." Sonic looked up in time for a lemon meringue pie to splatter across his face. "I always wanted to know what it was like to prank somebody. It's really fun!" Twilight laughed as Sonic wiped the pie off his face and tried a bit.

"Hmmm. Not bad," he said critically. "Could use a bit more sugar."

"Noted. Next time I change the molecular makeup of an orange into a pie, I'll make sure to add a few more sucrose molecules to it."

"Uhhh…"

"It was a joke."

"Oh."

"Nevermind," Twilight sighed. "I think I've got a hang of my magic now. Shall we see if it's up to par?"

"Sure thing," Sonic replied. He scooped up Twilight once more and the two took off through the mountain range. Well, not exactly "through" the mountain range. Sonic, to Twilight's astonishment, somehow managed to leap from mountain point to mountain point. True, they were only several hundred feet apart, but it was a feat that seemed to require wings to do so.

"Do you have wings that you're not telling me about?" Twilight asked as Sonic leapt a remarkable distance to another mountaintop.

"No, why?" he responded, landing lightly on one leg before leaping to another.

"It seems almost impossible to go so far without touching the ground unless you have wings."

"It does seem like that. Guess I'm just that awesome," Sonic said smugly. He felt Twilight shiver slightly. "You okay, Twi?"

"I'm fine, it's just a little bit colder up here than it was down there," she responded with another shiver. "D-don't you feel it?"

"Not really, no. I've kinda gotten used to it after all these years. If you're feeling really cold, I can take us down and run through the valley. It'll take a little longer, but it'll be warmer," he said with concern.

"Thank you for the consideration, but I think I've got an idea. Keep going." Sonic looked down at her, using his peripheral vision to keep on moving forward. Twilight had her eyes shut tight. Her long, flowing dress turned back into the casual wear that she had on earlier, making her shiver even more. But something seemed to be growing out of it. It started around her stomach and snaked loosely around the rest of her body, covering up her outfit, but not changing it. The blue-purple of her shirt was covered up by a strip of blue-purple… material, Sonic was no good with naming fabrics, that slowly wrapped around her stomach and moved up to her chest, splitting off into three to continue wrapping around her arms and her head. Her hair, before being pushed about wildly in the wind, was pulled back into a neat pony tail by the material. It was then pulled into a hood of sorts that let her hair continue to whip about behind her, but covered most of her head, excluding her face. It simultaneously finished covering her arms and head, then took up wrapping around her legs. As it did so, the colors switched to a more white-pink mix, still in the vortex pattern, and white fur started to line itself along its edges. Twilight's cutie mark appeared above her left breast just as it finished wrapping around her legs, revealing it to be a fluffy winter coat. All of this happened in a span of seconds, Sonic only being able to see it so clearly due to his super speedy eyes. To most others, it would have appeared that the coat-for that was what it appeared to be- had simply popped out of nowhere.

"Nice coat. You've really got the hang of that dress thingamawhosit now, huh?"

She opened her eyes and looked down with a smile. "I guess so," she said happily. She settled back into Sonic's arms, feeling warm and cozy.

"Can ya make it blue?" Sonic asked.

"Why would I want to make it blue?"

"Because True Blue is the most radical color ever, and, coincidentally, the color of yours truly," he responded, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"I don't see why not," she giggled. She blinked and the coat went from white-pink to, to Sonic's surprise, a mix of his True Blue and the color of his Classic-self. "How didja know that's the color I was back in the day?" Sonic asked.

"It is? I didn't realize. I just thought 'blue' and these were the two colors it came up with. Peculiar. Maybe it responded with your biological wavelength."

"Whatever you say, Twi. Hey, do you think we're close enough now?" Sonic asked. Twilight looked forward to see that they were a little less than a mile away from the looming Angel Island.

"At the speed you're going, we should be close enough in a few seconds. Hang on for teleportation!" Twilight yelled. Sonic gripped her tightly. As soon as she thought she was in range, Twilight squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated on her horn. A flash of magenta surrounded them and they disappeared in midair, just after Sonic had performed his last leap.

-On top of Angel Island-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" A cacophony of branches breaking and leaves being smacked erupted from the forest atop Angel Island. A blue blur smashed through the overhanging foliage and hit the ground hard. He lay there for a moment, not moving, then sat up with a groan. "Well, I'm sorry to say that that wasn't the worst crash into land that I've had, although it's up there. You okay, Twilight?" He dusted himself off as he waited for a reply. When he didn't hear one, he looked around. His Unicorn companion was nowhere in sight.

"Twilight?" he said a little louder. Still no response. "TWILIGHT?" he shouted. Nothing.

_Oh man, did something go wrong with her spell?_ he thought worriedly. _I've gotta find her, fast! Who knows what that chucklehead'll think once he sees her._ Sonic picked a random direction and took off, hoping that he would find Twilight before someone else did.

-On a different part of Angel Island-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" A purple and blue blur landed hard on top of a giant red mushroom that sunk heavily down, absorbing the impact of her fall. Then, with a small _boing_, it bounced her off at a considerably reduced speed. She jumped into the air high enough to see that she had made it onto Angel Island before falling back down to the ground. She landed hard on her hooves, but being a pony, her legs absorbed a good deal of the impact, leaving only a slight stinging sensation at the bottom of her hooves.

"Well, that was quite a fall. Are you okay, Sonic?" She too received no reply. "Sonic?" She looked around. There wasn't an ounce of blue in sight. "That's strange. We must've been separated from the teleportation combined with Sonic's momentum. I'll keep that in mind for the next time I teleport." Twilight looked up thoughtfully.

"Well, I know nothing of this terrain, but Sonic seemed to, and they say that the best thing to do when you're lost is to just stay put. I'm sure Sonic will find me soon if I just wait here. Maybe get to a little higher ground so I can see what's around here better." She paused. "And change my outfit. It's surprisingly hot up here." With almost no effort at all, she retracted her coat, leaving her in her jeans and t-shirt with her hair still pulled back.

"Still too warm." Her jeans unraveled up to her knees, leaving her in shorts. The sleeves of her t-shirt folded back again and again, maintaining their thickness, to leave her in a tank-top.

"Much better." After a slight moment of indecision, she chose a route that seemed to have a path sloping upwards and began walking.

After several minutes of walking through the mushrooms and a forest, Twilight arrived upon a small clearing. In the center of the clearing was a large stone altar surrounded by seven pillars, all decayed and covered with moss from age. Twilight could barely see a green light glowing from atop the massive altar.

"What could that be?" she asked curiously. _I really need to stop talking to myself._ She approached the altar slowly. A twig snapped behind her. Twilight froze. A slight growl seemed to be coming from the bushes behind her.

"Just what the heck do you think you're doing on my island?"

**Magic on Mobius: Chapter 10**

Location: Angel Island

Twilight could feel her heart leap to her throat at the sound of the deep, threatening voice, overflowing with malice. She whipped about to face whatever had called out to her, but saw nothing aside from the forest she had just left. Adrenaline coursed through her system, her brain screamed at her to run and hide from that menacing voice, but she somehow managed to keep a level head and innocently ask, "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"

"You heard me," the voice growled in response, just a bit to the right of where she had entered the clearing. Twilight's eyes darted to its source and attempted to pierce through the thick layer of vines and leaves that obscured the unknown being with her eyes, searching for something that would tip her off as to what the creature was. Her gaze shot to a small rustling in the leaves, and she was able to make out a small bit of unnaturally bright red through the slight gaps the movement had made before the vegetation shifted back into place.

"What the hell are you doing on my island?" the voice asked again, a bit more anger in it this time. The foliage hiding the stranger was dislodged by a double-spiked, gloved hand as the creature finally decided to show himself, though as he did so, Twilight wished that he would have stayed hidden within the cloak of leaves. The red Mobian was the picture of fury with his sharp teeth gnashed together in a jagged line and hands balled into alarmingly large and spiky fists. Flames seemed to roar in his red eyes as he looked at Twilight.

"M-me? Well, I got a little lost, so now I'm just trying to find a good place to wait for my friend to come and find me. That altar over there seemed like a good option. Do you mind if I look out for my friend up there?" Twilight asked, optimistically believing that the red Mobian merely had a bracing personality and wasn't actually angry to the point of bursting into flames. At the sound of the idea, though, the Mobian's eyes flickered to the top of the altar, hardened, then returned to Twilight.

"Aaaaah, I get it now. Well, you can forget about stealing the Master Emerald, Rouge. I've seen through your stupid disguise," Red announced cockily (Twilight figured she might as well refer to him as Red since she didn't know his name and everything about him seemed to be red).

Twilight blinked. Had she just been called Rouge? "You seem to be mistaken," she began. "I'm not-"

"-trying to steal the Master Emerald? Ha, that's a laugh. That's all you've ever wanted from me."

Twilight tried again to make Red see his error. "But I'm not-"

"Save it. Don't try to give me that 'oh, you've got the wrong girl,' act. You've done it all before. Besides, I know it's you under that ugly disguise. Who else could get this close to the Master Emerald without alerting me?" Red sneered haughtily.

_Apparently, I can._ Twilight felt a twinge of annoyance surge through her at the rude remark, but let it go with a deep breath so as not to risk getting Red any angrier.

"So, you protect this 'Master Emerald'?" Twilight asked politely, trying to cool Red's anger and change the subject.

"You know fully well that it's my duty as Guardian of Angel Island to protect both it and the Master Emerald from harm, Rouge," he responded coldly.

"Really? Then you're like a knight of sorts."

Red nodded smugly. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. Course, no knight could be quite as awesome as I am." Twilight began to have a little hope that she was working her way to his good side, but he immediately grew stolid. "But your sweet talk won't get you anywhere with me, even if it is true. Not this time," he admonished.

Twilight grew even more confused with Red. She had just given him a compliment, so why was he still acting so coldhearted? Twilight sighed and about-faced to look at the ancient altar.

"I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say that this 'Master Emerald' you're protecting is on top of that altar over there. If it's simply sitting out in the open for all the world to see like that, you must come across quite a few altercations while doing your job. Protecting it properly seems like it would be a formidable task. Whoever thought that was a good idea probably has scant knowledge in proper architecture and may need a few lessons on how to properly protect and/or conceal something," she stated honestly. "But I'd bet my brother would have several ideas on how to better protect it," she claimed proudly.

Though Twilight didn't notice, with every cuttingly honest remark she made that attacked the red Mobian's pride and honor, another vein popped in Red's forehead. At that last bit about Twilight's brother, Red snapped. "THAT'S IT, YOU'RE GOING DOWN!" he screamed out as he lunged at her.

Twilight turned about at his battle cry to see a spiked white fist flying towards her face. She ducked just in time for the fist to just barely miss her by centimeters, whiffing through her hair instead. Another one, aimed square at her jaw. She jerked back and one of the spikes on his glove grazed her chin. A thin stream of blood trickled down her neck, down her chest, slowly changing the top of her tank from a blue-purple to a purple-magenta. He continued his onslaught with the old one-two, a round house kick, a spiraling punch, and couple of other classic moves of his. Each one was barely dodged or blocked with increasing difficulty, adding more and more little scrapes to her lavender body.

Now Twilight was getting irked. The red Mobian had threatened her, accused her of being Rouge, essentially called her ugly (not that she really knew if she was ugly. She had no clue what Mobians thought was beautiful and was not. Still, it wasn't very nice.), talked rudely to her, and, to top it all off, he had attacked her! Still, it wouldn't be very nice of her to go and attack other people like that, even if they had been incredibly rude to her. Fine. She would try the diplomatic approach one more time.

"Stop!" she pleaded. "Please, I don't want to fight you!"

"Like hell I'm gonna stop!" Red snarled. "The day I let you get the Master Emerald is the day that pigs fly, you stupid bat!" He cracked his knuckles and chuckled darkly. "Now, open wide for a Knuckles-sandwich!" He sprang at her, his arms moving as if they were pinwheels, and attacked her with a barrage of blows. Or at least, he tried to. Twilight summoned up a small, pink, bubble shield around herself that kept the enraged Red from reaching her and concentrated all her magic on keeping it up, but to no avail. After a long combo, he landed one solid, resounding punch on the shield, and it shattered around Twilight. Red took advantage of her surprise and took a hard swing at her head, but slipped on a shard of the pink glass-like substance. His aim went high and his blow had considerably less force behind it, but he finally made some decisive, unblocked contact with her… horn?

He hadn't noticed that she had a horn. This disguise of Rouge's was very good. Or maybe… Come to think of it, those words "Rouge" had used, "alterdations" or something, were way to big and smart-sounding for the likes of her. Also, Rouge couldn't make a shield-thingy pop out of thin air. Or get her hair to float around her as if it was alive. _Wait… what?_ Red pulled back, sweat beginning to drip down his forehead. Rouge – or at least, the woman he thought was Rouge – had an overwhelming aura cascading down around her. Her midnight blue hair seemed to have come alive and was dancing around her head like snakes. Her eyes seemed to be practically glowing as she reached up and daintily touched her horn. She cringed back, and the powerful aura seemed to grow even stronger. Her horn became surrounded in a glittering pink light.

"Nobody…" A huge blast of pink light collided with Red and he skidded back a few feet.

"BUT NOBODY…" Another blast, stronger this time, sent him stumbling backwards onto his behind.

"HURTS MY HORN!"

In the distance, a small ways from the battle between Red and Twilight, a blue streak zipped through the forest, weaving in and out of the thick vegetation as he called out, "TWIIIIIILIIIIIIGHT! WHERE ARE YOU?" He hopped atop a large decaying log that stretched up and over a small cliff, overlooking the entirety of Angel Island. "IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, GIVE ME SOME SORTA SIGN WHERE YOU ARE!" he yelled. To his left, a great, pink explosion boomed, sending a strong wind whipping through the forest.

"That's one heckuvva sign there, Twi," he chuckled under his breath as he shaded his eyes and looked over at the explosion. He grinded down the log and sprinted down the mountain, racing towards the explosion. Since he now knew precisely where he was going and needn't slow down to actually look for Twilight, he arrived on scene in a matter of seconds. A large film of dust floated lazily down, making it incredibly difficult for Sonic to see or breath.

"Twilight?" he coughed, attempting to squint through the dust that had risen. He heard a deep groan and some panting in response, seeming to come from beneath him. The dust settled a tad, to the point where Sonic could see a few feet in front of him. The hedgehog attempted to take in the peculiar scene before him. Just a few inches in front of him was an impressive crater with something that vaguely resembled his knuckleheaded friend moaning at the bottom of it. Sonic slid down the side of the crater and landed next to the red Mobian. He nudged him with his foot.

"Helloooo? Can you hear me? Don't say anything if you're an idiot." His inquisition was met with a short stretch of silence. "Well, that settles it then. He's an idiot."

"Hey," Red grumbled. He sat up slowly, as if every bone in his body ached.

"Good morning, chucklehead!" Sonic greeted brightly. "Who kicked your sorry behind this time?"

"It's not my fault," Red complained, running a hand through his dreadlocks. "She was really tough."

Sonic grinned. "Oh, was she now? You got beat by a gi~rl, you got beat by a gi~rl," he chanted in a singsong manner.

"Put a sock in it, hedgehog," Red groaned, pressing a hand against his temples. Something seemed to click inside him and he shot to his feet. "The Master Emerald!" Red hurdled out of the crater and landed on one knee, panting deeply as he looked at the clouded landscape. Sonic followed him, curious as to what had his buddy all riled up.

Red did a quick scan through the dust and zeroed in on his target. "You," he huffed, "get away from the Master Emerald!"

"For the last time, you've got the wrong mare!" a familiar, feminine voice answered back in annoyance. Sonic, too, focused in on the blurry silhouette stomping towards him, still partially obscured by the unsettled dust. As the figure got closer, a grin began to spread across Sonic's face.

"Ms. Sparkle. I worked my little tail off looking all over this island for you, and here you are, having a battle with this chucklehead over here. What do you have to say for yourself, young lady?" Sonic scolded, though the goofy grin on his face made it clear that he was just messing with her. The figure halted.

"Hey, Sonic. It's good to see you too." The dust finally settled itself, and Sonic was able to see Twilight in her entirety. She looked a tad disheveled with a nice, thick layer of dust caked on her fur and some slight tears in her clothes, which had changed to a tank top and shorts, but other than that, she seemed to be just fine. Her gaze shifted back to Red and her eyes hardened. "And he's the one who started this whole mess! Do you think you could assist me in convincing this male that I am not Rouge? Maybe the two of us telling him will help him understand that. I attempted to be diplomatic about it a bit earlier, but he wouldn't listen!" she lamented, clearly quite miffed.

Sonic turned to Red. "So you thought she was…" He turned back to Twilight. "He thought you were… Well, this really **does** settle it. Knuckles, you are a complete and total idiot."

"Hey!"

"Sorry about this, Twilight. It appears that there's been some sort of mix up between the two of you. Apparently, this chucklehead right here stupidly thought, as he usually does when he comes across a stranger, that you were trying to steal the Master Emerald. Let me properly introduce the two of you. Knuckles, this is my new friend from another universe, Twilight Sparkle. Twilight, this here is my idiotic frenemy, Knuckles the Echidna."

**Magic on Mobius: Chapter 11**

Location: Master Emerald Altar, Angel Island

Knuckles rose to his feet and walked towards the girl, eyeing her skeptically. When he got close enough, he held out a hand with a distinct grimace on his face. Twilight took it cautiously and let her hand be encompassed in the white fabric of his gloves. Knuckles gave her hand two quick pumps before dropping it forcefully and glaring at her menacingly.

"Even though Sonic says you're his friend, I don't trust you. I'm going to be keeping an eye on you," he muttered sourly, just loud enough for Twilight to hear. Twilight gulped slightly and nodded.

"Are we all friends now?" Sonic asked. "Great. Well, sorry to hit and run, Knux, but we've got a tour to finish," he said as he moved towards Twilight. "So, if you don't mind-"

"Actually, Sonic, I do mind," Knuckles interrupted. "I'd like to have a little chat with your friend here. We need to… settle a few things." He wrapped an arm around Twilight's shoulder and gave it a tight squeeze, causing her slight discomfort. Sonic's eyes narrowed a tad.

"When you say 'settle things', do you mean with words, or with fists? 'Cause if you mean fists, I'd be more than happy to get in on that. I haven't sparred in ages." Sonic began to stretch out, warming up for the potential match.

"I'm sure words will work just fine," Twilight said quickly. "Besides, I have a few questions I would like to ask Knuckles myself. For example…" she turned to the Echidna, eyes sparkling with curiosity.

"What exactly is the Master Emerald? Can you give me a detailed description of it and its traits? Is it in any way connected to the Chaos Emeralds? How did you become the Guardian of this place? What makes you Guardian? Are you the only one on this island? How does it float? How did the-mushrooms-over-there-grow-to-be-so-large?-Is-it-an-aspect-the-mushroom-species?Doesithavesomethingtodowiththezonetheywereplantedin?Whyareyourfistssoabnormallylarge?Whydotheyhavespikesonthem?Howcome-"

She continued with her onslaught of questions, speaking faster and faster to the point where it was impossible to understand her. Sonic watched gleefully as Knuckles eyes began to spin around in their sockets, his confusion growing higher and higher as his small mind was overloaded with questions. He couldn't take it any longer. "Enough!" he shouted and sank to the ground, hands gripping his throbbing head. "You win! We'll settle it with words! I'll tell you what you want to know, but stop asking so many questions!"

Sonic burst into a fit of laughter while Twilight sighed heavily. People did sometimes have difficulty understanding her when she asked so many questions in rapid succession, but it was so hard to control herself here. This was a whole new world, everything different, everything strange, yet somehow familiar. So much to see, so much to do, so much to learn, she felt a constant buzz from the excitement of it all. And yet… despite all that… what had her the most curious, or should she say who, was the biggest mystery of all, Shadow the Hedgehog. She wasn't sure why, but her mind kept drifting back to him. There was something about him that just drove her curiosity up the wall. She couldn't quite place her hoo…_finger_ on it, but something about him was, for lack of a better word, different. What could it be?

"Yeah, yeah, I'm a riot, I know. Now shut up. What do you want to know?" Knuckles asked, drawing Twilight out of her thoughts.

"Well, for starters, can you tell me a bit about this 'Master Emerald'?" she asked as politely as she could.

"Gladly," Knuckles said, always eager to tell the story of Angel Island and the Master Emerald to whoever would listen. "Do you know about the Chaos Emeralds?" Twilight nodded. "Well, picture the seven Chaos Emeralds as children and the Master Emerald as their parent. They like to play and get into all sorts of mischief, getting super powerful, corrupted, you name it. The Master Emerald is there to draw them back in line. The Master Emerald was blah blah blah blah…"

Sonic zoned out almost immediately when Knuckles began his story. He'd heard Knuckles' whole spiel so many times that he could practically recite it word for word backwards. So instead of listening to his whole rant about how important the Master Emerald and Angel Island were, how he was an epic Guardian, blah blah blah, Sonic figured he would take the opportunity to relax and just think a little.

With all that had recently happened, his initial thoughts went to Twilight. She was a nice girl. Kind of an egghead, but he couldn't really blame her for being so curious about Mobius. It sounded like she was from someplace really different where talking ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi were apparently common. He had to admit, if he had gone to a place like that, he'd be curious too. Maybe he'd listen in on the conversation Tails and Twilight would have later. Who knows, there might even be an alternate version of him there, ponified of course. Most dimensions had one, for whatever reason. Zonic the Zone Cop had explained it to him forever ago, but he couldn't quite remember all of the little details. Oh well. Maybe his other form was a Pegasi or a Unicorn! That would be way past cool. He would never have to worry about water ever again! He'd fly over it or use some water-proofing spell or something to avoid drowning.

Speaking- well, thinking- of spells, Sonic's thought process changed course to the battle between Twilight and Knuckles. Though he'd never say it aloud, Knux was a pretty tough cookie. He could easily take out a legion of Robobutt's cronies without breaking a sweat. The fact that he was taken down by Twilight with one magic blast really said something about Twilight's power. She probably wasn't even using her full power there. If she could do something like that without being powered up… Sonic shuddered to think at what would happen if Robotnik got his grubby mitts on a power like that.

The Commander's precaution of having Shadow hang around Twilight suddenly made loads of sense. If Shadow wasn't going to do his job because of some stupid little teasing, Twilight would need someone else to keep her out of Robotnik's clutches. Possibly someone who happened to be a magnificent shade of blue, way past cool, and the fastest thing alive. Not like he was busy doing much else aside from running around and thwarting Robotnik. Becoming Twilight's bodyguard would be like killing those two birds with one stone. Plus he would get to know Twilight a little better. Well, a lot better. Come to think of it, he still didn't really know all that much about her now. He wondered… Gah, her curiosity was infectious!

"…right, Sonic?"

Moving on, what would he do as her bodyguard? First thing would be change the title, it sounded way too formal. Maybe her escort? No, that sounded dirty. Protector? That would be cutting into Knuckles' Guardian territory. Ooh, how about her companion? Companion sounded good. He would be her companion, temporarily.

"…Sonic?"

He'd show her the ropes of living on Mobius, revisit all his favorite places, kick some robot trash while protecting her, and find all seven Chaos Emeralds again. It'd be great! A whole new adventure!

"Sonic!"

"What?"

"Were you even listening to my story?" Knuckles huffed angrily.

"Would you stop talking if I said yes?" Sonic asked sarcastically.

"Pay attention! I'm talking about some important things here!"

"But you just keep going on and on about stuff you've told me a million times before! It's just so booooring!" Sonic whined.

"It's not at all boring," Twilight objected. "It's actually quite the opposite. It's simply fascinating that Knuckles has managed to protect the Master Emerald and Angel Island for so long all on his own. It's remarkable that nothing has happened to either this whole time." Sonic sniggered, causing Knuckles to shoot him a sharp look. Twilight raised an eyebrow, but continued. "Not to mention that he's helped save the world from danger several times. He's done so many incredible things, it's a miracle that he's still alive."

"Well, I am pretty miraculous, if I do say so myself," he said smugly. "Seriously, Sonic, where did you find this girl? She thinks I'm like a god or something. Must be a freaking genius. I can't believe you thought I shouldn't trust her," Knuckles whispered.

"But I said-"

"Whatever. Point is, she's okay in my book." Knuckles faced Twilight again. "Anything else you'd like to know?" he asked.

"Well, if it isn't too much trouble, could I take a look at the Master Emerald and maybe get a quick scan of its energy? If what you said is true, the Master Emerald's energy signature should be incredibly similar to those of the Chaos Emeralds. If I can get a good reading on it, I could use its signature in conjunction with my gem finding spell to find the specific locations of each Chaos Emerald."

Knuckles looked at her blankly. "Does any of that involve touching the Master Emerald?" he asked.

"No, not at all. I just need to see it to be able to scan it with my magic. It won't do a thing to the Master Emerald."

Knuckles thought hard for several moments before making up his mind. "Fine. You can look, but no touching."

The trio, with Knuckles in the lead, made their way to the altar, picking their way around the various bits of debris that were strewn about as a result of Twilight's magic blast. "Oh, I almost forgot. Sorry about blasting you into that crater earlier. You were just so persistent and rude that I lost my temper," Twilight said apologetically.

"It's all good. No harm, no foul. Besides, that was one heckuvva shot there. I haven't sparred like that for a little while. It felt good to go all out. We should spar again," Knuckles said enthusiastically.

"I don't really know all that much about fighting aside from what I've read in books, and even that doesn't apply here due to my current form. Honestly, what I did back there was kind of a spur of the moment thing. I'm not even entirely sure how it happened," Twilight explained. The group began their ascent to the Master Emerald.

"Bummer. Well, if you ever feel violent and want to have a good brawl, come talk to me. I'll even teach you the basics of fighting. You've got potential, kid."

"Kid? Why did you call me kid? We don't appear to be too far apart in age. At least, I don't think we are. How old are you?"

"Me? I'm hitting 20 soon. How about you? You don't look older than 17."

"That's what everybody keeps saying. I'm actually-"

"Ah, there it is. The Master Emerald in all its glory," Sonic interrupted as they reached the top of the altar. Twilight looked in awe at the massive green Emerald. What really caught her attention was not its startling size nor its brilliant color, but the aura that seemed to be flowing off it. It radiated power, but it was also gentle, warmly encouraging her to approach it, to touch it, to embrace it and feel comforted.

"Wow… it's beautiful," Twilight said dazedly as she slowly approached it. She walked around it in a slow circle, taking in its peculiarly comforting energy as she examined every detail.

"Are you done with your scanning thingy or whatever?" Knuckles asked after she had finished her lap, drawing her out of her daze.

"Hmm? Oh, right, the energy scan. I almost forgot." Twilight closed her eyes in concentration, but just as she was about to perform the spell,

"Waaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiit!" a voice yelled, growing rapidly closer. Twilight turned towards it only to have a smallish yellow ball of fur crash into her. She toppled over and landed hard on the Master Emerald as the yellow furry ball careened away, out of control. The Master Emerald flashed bright green, then there was nothing. Only darkness was left.

**Magic on Mobius: Chapter 12**

Location: Emerald Altar, Angel Island

"Seriously, what's with all the flashing lights today?" Sonic asked, rubbing his eyes. "That was, like, the third one. And why always green? Why not blue or yellow or…" he trailed off as his eyes finally readjusted to the normal light. Twilight lay unmoving atop the Master Emerald with Tails circling it, muttering something under his breath. The steady rise and fall of Twilight's chest, along with the lack of blood and bruises, told Sonic that she was alive and unharmed, but unconscious. He absentmindedly noted that she was now in her "Alicorn state" as she had called it and that her tiara's gem was tinged with green, but those thoughts were hardly at the forefront of his mind right then.

"Tails? What are you doing here?"

"I followed you," he said simply, not turning his gaze away from Twilight or the Master Emerald. Sonic waited for elaboration, but when none was forthcoming, he went on.

"Care to tell me why? Or even how? No offense little buddy, but there's no way you could've kept up with me."

"Sorry, Sonic, but now's not the time to be worrying about that. I'll explain later. Right now, I'm more concerned about Twilight's reaction to the Master Emerald," Tails said quietly. "You know how after Twilight sprained her ankle, I gave her that Chaos Energy?"

Sonic nodded. "Yeah, and then she went all glowy and looked like this."

"Right. Well, I'm starting to think that I maybe shouldn't have done that. Chaos Energy powers us up and gives us an extra boost after it wears off, and I assumed that since Twilight looks like a Mobian, she would react in a similar way. And she did, initially. But I have no idea what the long term effects of giving her that energy are, or how it could interact with her magic. And with this new exposure to the Master Emerald, who knows how she'll react. Right now, it appears she is in a comatose state, transformed, but unaware of her surroundings. This is good, for now. The Chaos Energy will probably wear off eventually and she'll simply wake up as if nothing happened. We just need to make sure that she doesn't receive any extreme outside stimulants." At this point, Tails grinned faintly at Sonic.

"And that shouldn't be too hard, considering we're on top of a floating island in the middle of nowhere. What could possibly go wrong?"

Sonic performed a mental facepalm. _Why did you have to go and jinx it like that? Why? Cue extreme outside stimulant in 3… 2…_

"What the hell, Tails!? Why'd you shove me down the stairs!? Do you want to fight? Because I'd be more than happy to throw down right here, right now!" an angry voice yelled from behind Sonic.

_Aaaaand there it is,_ Sonic mentally groaned. "Calm down, chucklehead, before you pop a blood vessel. And hush up for a bit. Would it kill ya to not yell every single word?"

"Why should I hush up? We're outdoors! I can be as loud as I want! You're not the boss of me!" Knuckles yelled as he mounted the top of the altar. "Dammit, Twilight's right. Whoever thought it was a great idea to have the Master Emerald at the top of several flights of stairs must've been sick in the head. Seriously, why would- what is she doing on top of my Master Emerald!?" he roared. Twilight noticeably twitched in her sleep.

"Keep it down! Do you want to wake her up?" Sonic hissed, knowing full well the consequences of waking a fully-powered, possibly unstable Twilight.

"Yes, I want to wake her up! Why wouldn't I want to wake her up?! Who does she think she is, sleeping on the Master Emerald as if it were a freaking couch she could just lay on whenever she pleases!? I want her up and off it right now! TWILIGHT! Get off of there before I-mmph!" a hand was slapped over his mouth as Twilight rolled over in her sleep, somehow managing to stay atop the Master Emerald.

"Seriously, shut up! She'll wake up and get off the Master Emerald soon enough, so just take a chill pill and relax!" Sonic shout-whispered in Knuckles ear. Knuckles opened his mouth and dug his sharp fangs into the gloved hand, penetrating the thick fabric and breaking the hedgehog's skin. Cursing, Sonic dropped his hand, giving Knuckles long enough to shout one last phrase.

"Get the hell off of the Master Emerald!"

That did it. Twilight slowly began to open her eyes, but they were… different. Her irises were blotted out, leaving only a sea of glowing white, eerily similar to Dark Sonic's eyes. She sat up and slid off the Master Emerald, landing lightly on her hooves before her gaze swept across the trio. Or at least, it seemed like she looked at them. It was hard to tell where she was looking when she didn't have irises. She said nothing at all, merely standing there with a neutral expression on her face as an uncomfortable silence rose up between the four.

"Say something already!" Knuckles demanded, frustrated at the prolonged silence. Twilight looked in his direction (still can't tell where she's focusing) and cocked her head to the side. "You know, move your lips and make sounds? I thought you were smart," he remarked snootily.

Without any warning whatsoever, she lunged at him, her right fist landing a clean blow on his smug mug. "Urgh! So you want to brawl some more, huh? Fine, let's- Ooph!" Her left fist drilled into his stomach, driving all the air out of his lungs. "Heh, I see you're getting seri-Gah!" Her right hoof flew up and collided with the side of his head, throwing him into a pillar. "Okay then, if that's how you want to play it, no more sma-Nnngh!" A small blast of magic buried him in the pillar, making it nearly impossible for a normal person to get out. Knuckles, however, was far from normal. With barely any effort, he spread out his arms and legs against the stone and fell from his place with an enraged scream. "LET ME FINISH WHAT I'M SAYING, GODDA-RAAGH!" A much more powerful blast of magic sent him smashing through the pillar and flying somewhere into the clearing, followed by a string of profanities too vulgar to include as the infuriated echidna fell to the ground.

"Twilight, just calm down for a second and-whoa!" Tails ducked down in time to miss the fist that swung at his head. "Why are you doing-yipe!" Twilight reached behind him and grabbed his twin tails that had begun to spin, effectively stopping them and leaving the fox dangling from her grasp. She somehow managed to tie the tails in a fluffy golden bow with one hand before whipping the fox about her head and tossing him off the side, struggling furiously to undo the knot in his tails. The sound of knuckles cracking behind her prompted Twilight to turn and face a pissed off hedgehog.

"I don't know what's gotten into you, Twilight, but nobody, but nobody," he paused for a moment, catching Twilight's incoming fist in left hand as it flew at his face, "messes with my little buddy like that." And with that, a hard, gloved fist shot forward at a lightning speed and struck the mare a hard blow in the gut. Twilight skidded back, a hand fluttering to her gut for a moment as she looked down at it, not a pained look on her face, but more of a look of mild shock, as if her disbelief at being punched was greater than the actual pain felt from it. She looked blankly back up at Sonic as he returned her gaze with an angry glare.

Her head cocked to the side again as she stared at the hedgehog before a magic bolt shot out of her horn at incredible speed. It would've impaled the hedgehog if not for his lightning fast reflexes. He quick stepped out of the way of the bolt as it narrowly missed him, hitting the mountain he had been standing on not too long ago in the distance. A crater the size of an orange from Sonic's perspective suddenly appeared on the vertical mountain face. Sonic gulped slightly and tensed, realizing that Twilight was playing for keeps. Though he didn't understand why she had started doing this, he would have to go all out to stay alive. And he just had to leave all his rings at home that day, too.

Another bolt shot past him, barely grazing the fur on his arm as he quick stepped out of its way again. "Ha! You shoot like a bad guy!" he mocked as he dodged yet another bolt, this one whistling by his ear. The next minute was filled with the sound of a steady stream of magic bolts flying at Sonic, followed by an equally steady stream of taunts he threw at her as each one missed ("You're too slow! Come on, step it up! Too easy, piece of cake! You'll regret this! Alright, bring it on! Too fast for ya? Oh yeah!" to name a few). Despite his cocky attitude, though, he wouldn't be able to keep this up forever. Besides, just dodging out of the way of her every shot would be soooo boring. So, he figured he might as well take the offensive.

After dodging one last bolt, he jumped high in the air and curled himself into a ball before somehow launching himself down at her, his razor sharp quills acting as spinning blades. He dashed into her stomach and threw her back against the Master Emerald, trying his best to hold back and not cause any permanent damage, but tearing up her clothes and some of her skin regardless. Her head hit an edge of the Master Emerald hard and she slumped down against it, unmoving. Thinking she was down for the count and being vaguely surprised at how easy getting her down was, Sonic turned to make his way down the altar to check on his little buddy and maybe the knucklehead.

As he reached the top of the steps, though, a hot pain spread across his back, launching him off the top of the steps in a gasp of surprise and pain. Flipping about in midair, he saw Twilight, back up for round two, with one hand on the now faintly glowing Master Emerald as her wounds closed up and her dress stitched itself back together. _How could I have forgotten about the Master Emerald?! It's a giant, glowing, green gem, for Pete's sake!_ he scolded himself as he started to fall. _Whatever. That just means that I'm going to have to get her away from it. And I've never been one to back down from a challenge._

And with that, he curled back into a ball and raced up the near vertical wall of the altar, quickly launching himself up and over the top and dive-bombing Twilight. She made no attempt to dodge as his foot made contact with her chest and sent her flying over the edge of the altar top. "Yeeees!" Sonic cheered with a small fist pump as she fell. "Noooooo." Crap. He'd forgotten about her wings. _AND I forget her wings?! Smooth, Sonic, forgetting two really important pieces of information. Real smooth._

Twilight flapped up and away from the altar, staying just barely out of Sonic's jumping height as she began pelting him with another onslaught of magic bolts. These ones were coming much closer to hitting Sonic, their increased frequency more than making up for their slight decrease in accuracy with the additional distance. He danced around them in a frenzy of blurred motion, moving so fast he was creating after-images. And if that wasn't hard enough, he had to try and keep his footing as the altar was being blown to bits underneath him by her bolts (talk about a mouthful). He could hardly take the offensive like this if he was barely managing to dodge the bolts.

A small green movement out of the corner of his eye drew Sonic's attention temporarily away from the fight and to the Master Emerald as it became unstable atop the thin pillar of what was left of the altar that the bolts had somehow missed completely. It wobbled back and forth, threatening to go crashing to the ground and shatter into a million pieces. Sonic inwardly groaned as he continued his intricate dance with the magic. Tracking down every single little piece of the Master Emerald would be like going through Hell and back. How did it manage to scatter so far away anyhow? Must've had something to do with its crazy Chaos Energy. _Wait a second… Chaos Energy… that's it!_

With a small whoop of joy at his revelation, Sonic sprinted up the altar/pillar and latched onto the Master Emerald as it leaned a bit too much to one side and began to fall. Twilight stopped shooting once she saw the hedgehog make his move, to Sonic's great surprise, as most would usually start trying to knock him off the pillar or something. But hay, he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Twilight merely watched as the blue hedgehog and Emerald fell down, down, down, spiraling towards the ground.

At the last possible moment, she swooped down and grabbed the Master Emerald, saving it and the hedgehog latched onto it from an untimely demise. She lifted it with one hand as if it was as light as a feather and set it down gently on the grass, careful not to damage it in the process.

After a moment with no sign of the hedgehog crawling out from underneath, she peeked over the side of the Master Emerald to see nothing but white fabric as a fist collided with her face. Unprepared for it, she was thrown far, far, far back, colliding with the mountain in the distance before she managed to recover. Pebbles, rocks, and boulders tumbled down around her as she pried herself from the stone and rubbed at her eyes to get the dust out. For all the reaction she was showing, you'd think she'd just received a small flick to the forehead rather than being slammed into a mountain at an incredible speed. Her eyes focused in on the now glowing yellow hedgehog way in the distance as he talked to the small, dual-tailed fox she had shoo'd away earlier. Her shoulders shrugged the slightest bit as she zoomed in to deal back the damage done to her by the hedgehog.

"…You think that'll work?" Sonic asked. Tails hesitated a moment, then bobbed his head up and down a few times.

"It's our best bet. Do you have any better ideas?" Sonic mimicked Tails's action, only shaking his head instead of nodding.

"Nope. Okay, let's do thi-erk!" _Theeeeeere it is. I was wondering when she was going to interrupt me,_ Sonic thought to himself bemusedly as his head bashed into the pitiful remnants of the altar. _Thank goodness I'm thickheaded. Wait, no, wrong word._

Twilight flew just ahead of him, positioning herself on the ground so that she would be ready to receive the glowing hedgehog. _That's the strangest battle position I've ever seen anybody take. Seriously, what the heck is she doing?_ Twilight got down on her hands and feet, her rear end facing the hedgehog as he flew towards her. If he continued like this, he'd end up in a rather awkward position. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your taste), when Sonic got within range, Twilight strung out both her hooves behind her and gave Sonic a powerful buck to the noggin.

_Thank goodness I've got a thick head. Ugh, no that doesn't sound right either!_ he bemoaned as he's sent flying back where he came from. _C'mon Sonic, you can do better than that!_ He stops himself in midair, just as Twilight is about to pass him up in her preparation to rally him back and forth in her game of Sonic-volleyball. "Hey, do you think you could hit my head one more time? I'm so close to getting this phrase right. Just hit me one more time right about here," he gestures to the region just above his eyes, "and we'll be golden. Well, I'll be golden. You'll be Ms. Royal Prissypants," he adds on with a smirk.

At that last comment, Twilight gives him a resounding slap across his cheek, sending him flying into the forested area just outside the clearing. "Not quite what I had in mind, but thanks!" Sonic shouted just before his face scraped across the dirt, his momentum sending his face plowing through at least a dozen trees before he slowed to a stop. "Ptoo! Blegh, I'm going to be cleaning dirt out of my ears for a week!" he complains as he spits out big clods of dirt. "Thank goodness my head is as hard as I am fast. Hmmm… yeah, that's good enough for now. I'll think of something better later. Right now, though," he rolls his head from side to side, small cracking noises being made as he does so, "there's a pony deserves a little payback."

In a burst of inhuman speed (inmobian speed, too), Sonic flies up behind Twilight and gives her a roundhouse kick to one of her wings, wincing as he watches her spiral out of control towards the ground. "Sorry, Twilight, but this is for your own good!" Sonic calls as he lands on the ground next to her as she attempts to stand and recover. He rushes in and aims a kick at her gut, only to have his leg grabbed just before it makes contact. Prepared for this, he flips back hard, yanking his foot out of her grasp and sending it colliding with Twilight's jaw as she's thrown back some distance.

She takes a step back once she hits the ground again to regain her balance to find her back pressed up against the Master Emerald. She whips about and presses herself fully against it, letting the Chaos Energy revitalize her as she is distracted for a moment by her sudden increase in power. Unfortunately for her, that was a moment too long, as Sonic took advantage of her momentary distraction and grabbed her arm, prying her away from the Master Emerald and putting him in her place. The hedgehog closes his eyes in concentration, leaving him vulnerable. Twilight's arm pulls back and swings forward rapidly before freezing just an inch from his nose. Her power was… decreasing? This couldn't be! It was simply impossible! And yet, it was happening. At the rate the power was flowing out of her, she had only a few seconds left in her super form until she went back to normal.

"You may have won this time, hedgehog, but I'll be back. I've got all the time in the world…" she hissed before reverting back to her normal self, complete with the sleeveless blue-green dress and absence of wings. Her eyes purple eyes rolled back and she slumped forward, landing in the arms of the blue hedgehog.

Sonic's eyes widened slightly in disbelief and confusion. He had expected her to do something along the lines of fainting after he'd channeled the Chaos Energy in the two of them into the Master Emerald, sure, but what was with those cryptic last words? Twilight hadn't even been talking the whole time they were battling, then she goes and says something like that? Where did that even come from? And the way she said it… it didn't sound like Twilight at all. Something about it, though, sounded vaguely familiar to him. He'd heard it long ago, but where? And from who?

Tails, who had been hiding in the bushes while the battle of supers was going on, rushed over to the duo. "Did you drain her of every last bit of Chaos Energy?" Tails asked fretfully.

"Uh huh."

"Are you sure? Even a little bit could make something like that happen again in the future."

"I'm sure."

"You're absolutely positive that you got every last little bit?"

"Tails," Sonic warned.

"Sorry, Sonic, but you can never be too sure. Honestly, that was a lot easier than I expected it to be."

Sonic raised an eyebrow at his little buddy. "Really? You being thrown off the altar, Knuckles being thrown who knows where, and me getting a royal *snicker* beat down before I got serious is easy?"

"None of us really got hurt, did we?" Tails pointed out.

"Touché."

"No, Tails, don't bother waking me up after I'd been knocked out, I'm just fine, thanks," a voice calls out sarcastically. Knuckles emerges from the bushes where Tails had just been hiding, rubbing the top of his head. "Seriously, I was laying right there Tails, not even a foot away from you. Why didn't you wake me up, or at least check and see that I wasn't dead or something?"

"It's because I, uh, know how strong and resilient you are! A little knock to the head wouldn't hurt you!" Tails lied, hoping that stroking Knuckles' ego would distract him.

"You've got that right." _Works every time,_ Sonic thought with a smirk. "So, is there any reason why we aren't pounding the crud out of that little sneak while she's knocked out? If not, I'd love to pick up where we last left off," Knuckles said, beating his fists together.

"Hold your horses, Knux," Sonic said.

"You've already got that covered," Knuckles retorted with a snigger. Sonic rolled his eyes.

"Horse puns aside, something tells me that whatever was attacking us wasn't Twilight," Sonic said, thinking back to her warning.

"Why do you say that?" Knuckles asked.

"Did the silence from Ms. Chatterbox and glowing white eyes not tip you off?"

"Now that you mention it, I thought something was off while she was attacking," Knuckles commented offhandedly.

"I'm sure you did. Anyway, I'm pretty sure Twilight here is down for the count, so… what now?" Sonic asked, directing his gaze at Tails.

"I didn't really plan this far ahead," Tails admitted. "Maybe we take her back to my house until she wakes up? I could perform some more thorough tests on her while she's asleep," he suggests.

"Sounds good to me. One quick question, though."

"What?"

"How are we getting off this hunk of floating rock? Twilight teleported us up here, and I wouldn't be able to jump from here without hurting her."

"We take the X Tornado, of course. I wouldn't have gotten here so quickly without taking it."

"Well, that answers that question. What are we waiting for? Let's go!" And with that, Sonic tossed Twilight over his shoulder and sped off into the forest, a strong wind following him. A few seconds later, though, he returned, his expression, posture, and position the same as before he had taken off. "Where did you say the X Tornado was?"

"I didn't," Tails chuckled. "Just follow me. It'll be easier than trying to explain where it is."

"Fiiiiiine," Sonic groaned. "Lead the way, oh wise one." And with that, Tails began walking away, Sonic walking parallel to him, but backwards. "You coming with, Knux?" Sonic called out.

"Pass. I've gotta figure out what to do with the Master Emerald now that the altar's destroyed," Knuckles replied, sticking a thumb out towards the rubble. "Tell Twilight when she wakes up that she owes me a new altar."

"Will do," Sonic said, throwing in a little salute at the end before turning around and continuing to follow Tails to the X Tornado. Maybe when she awakened, Twilight would be able to shed some light on what had just occurred.

**Magic on Mobius: Chapter 13**

Location: ?

Darkness. That's all there was. Darkness. No light. No life. Nothing at all. Just darkness. Well, darkness and Twilight.

Twilight simply floated there in the dark expanse as she attempted to adjust and figure out just what the hay had happened to her. She'd been about to scan the Master Emerald when some furry ball had knocked her onto it, then it flashed a bright green, and then… nothing. She was just here. Given that information, she narrowed what had happened to her down to three things. One: she was dreaming. Two: she was dead. Three… she didn't want to consider three yet. She needed to exhaust all her theories before going to that.

A quick, semi-painful round of slaps told her that she wasn't dreaming. The stinging in her cheeks and the small tears gathering at the edges of her eyes felt all too real for this to be a dream. Besides, unless Princess Luna expressly told somepony that she was in a dream, that pony would be unable to realize it until waking up. So that took option one off the list.

Option two, after a brief survey of the surroundings, was too eliminated. Twilight had seen the gates of Tartarus, even gone a little ways in out of scientific curiosity. Contrary to what she had read in several supposedly nonfiction books, it wasn't all a flaming, limitless trench, intended to imprison and torture the monsters and evil souls trapped there. In fact, there was actually a rather nice region where ponies, griffons, zebras, and all other good manners of creature journeyed once they entered the afterlife. Or at least, that's what it appeared to be. And judging by the lack of flames, screams of tortured souls, or anything else period, this was most certainly not Tartarus.

Unless, of course, she had died and been thrown into The Pit of Tartarus, the furthest possible reaches where the absolute worst manners of creatures were left, depraved of all their senses and outside contact, left to go insane and suffer for all eternity as if they didn't exist. Twilight had merely glanced at The Pit while she was exploring Tartarus, but it had left quite the impression on her, the way it sucked at her soul, begging her to come closer and be consumed by that overwhelming void. Only the most vile and depraved souls were banished there, though, and Twilight was fairly sure that she wasn't vile or depraved enough to land herself in The Pit. Well, there was that one time with that book where… but that by itself wasn't enough to land her in The Pit. At least, she thought not. The raw skin Twilight felt on the inside of her cheek as she accidently bit it in her fretful state reminded her that she could still feel pain, so she couldn't possibly be in the pit.

That only left option three. She had been teleported, yet again, to another dimension. This scared her more than being thrown in to Tartarus ever could have. At least Tartarus would be vaguely familiar and she would have a slight chance of being able to get back to Ponyville from there. But no, she was stuck in an alternate dimension, void of light, void of gravity, void of any signs of life. Just darkness.

She felt sweat beginning to form on her palms. She was all alone… again. For real this time. How would she be able to get through this? How would she even be able to live with things in their present condition? There was no food, no water, no plants that she could see… how was she even breathing?! She gasped, her throat constricting as her mind attempted to convince her that she couldn't be breathing. Her breathing became quick and labored as she began to tremble. How long would she be able to last? A week? A day? An hour? Her hands went up to her face, as if to hide herself from the all-consuming nothingness, but instead of landing on her cold, sweaty forehead, they rested on something smooth and firm. What was it?

Her fingers delicately traced the edges of the object atop her head, coming together in a point at the top of the object. _My… Element?_

The feeling of her Element on her head had a strangely calming effect on her. Maybe it was the familiar object in the unfamiliar land. Maybe it was the memories of her friends that it brought with it. Whatever, the case, relief flowed through Twilight as she rested her hands on the crown. The intense pounding of her heart died down, and with several deep breaths, Twilight regained her composure and confidence.

_There's no need to hyperventilate yet, Twilight,_ she thought to herself as she took a final steadying breath. _Take stock of your situation first and figure out what, if anything, you can do to make it better. At the very least, it's something to do._

_ Okay, so what do I know? This place is too dark to see anything. Maybe I can shed a little light on the situation. _Small magenta sparks appeared in the darkness before Twilight's horn was lit up. "That's better," Twilight thought aloud. The sound of her own voice served to further soothe her frayed nerves, being much better than the deafening silence of moments ago.

"What next? Let's see… maybe a list? Yes, a list would be good. Mobian form? Check. Element of Magic? Check. Horn? Check. I've got my Element, so… wings?" She reached behind her back and felt her surprisingly soft feathery wings. "Check. So, I'm still a Mobian, but I must've absorbed some more Chaos Energy, maybe from the Master Emerald. Now I'm transformed. I can handle that. What else do I know…" She tapped her chin thoughtfully, her eyes drifting downwards to her hand. She stopped tapping her chin.

"Transparent?… Apparently, that's a check. An unexpected one, but nothing I can't handle. The question now is how did I get like this to begin with?"

As several theories with varying degrees of ludicrousness battled in her head, an odd chill suddenly ran down Twilight's back, as if someone's eyes were boring into her back. She whipped about, searching for what had been watching her, but found nothing as her eyes scanned the black void. She gave her head a slight shake before returning to her previous train of thought. _Be sensible, Twilight, you're the only one here! There's no way someone could be watching you, _she chided herself. And yet…

She decided it might be a good idea if she kept quiet.

**Well, that's the temporary end of that whirlwind of poop. I'm currently in the process of revising this story though under the title "Magic on Mobius", so if you like this, go check that out! I don't have very much of it done yet, but I'm working on it ^^' Anywho, ciao!**


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